Abu Dhabi GP: Post-Qualifying comments from Leclerc and Vettel

Ferrari drivers Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel will start from 12th and 13th place in the last race of the season, the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Charles Leclerc qualified in P9 but demoted to P12 due to 3-place grid drop penalty handed to him during Sakhir GP.

Sebastian Vettel, who is driving his final race in Ferrari colors, failed to make it to Q3 after qualifying in P13. Vettel is nearly 0.7 seconds down on his teammate’s fastest time, the four-time World Champion is surprised by the gap and he hinted no other team in the paddock have that much time difference between teammates.

Leclerc will start tomorrow’s race on Mediums after qualifying Q2 in those tyres, while Sebastian will have a free choice. both drivers are predicting tough race and they want to give it all to finish the season on high.

Charles Leclerc (P12 on the Starting Grid)

“I am not so happy about today. Even though Q1 was good and Q2 was very, very good on Medium tyres, in Q3 we lost the rhythm, especially in the last sector and it didn’t work out for us. Unfortunately, we have a three-place grid penalty to take tomorrow so it won’t make much difference that I am starting on Mediums, as I expect people around me at the start to go for Medium or Hard tyres.

We were quite competitive in FP2 even though our long runs were affected by the red flag, so our pace shouldn’t be too bad tomorrow.

It’s going to be a tricky race because here in Abu Dhabi it’s always very warm so tyre management will be a big thing, more than usual. I want to stay sixth in the drivers’ championship so for this last race of the season I’ll do all I can to make up as many places as possible.”

Sebastian Vettel (P13 on the Starting Grid)

“Obviously it is not nice to start my final race with the team from 13th on the grid. The result itself is quite bad, even if I was happy with my own performance on the lap. Maybe putting together the perfect lap would have got me as high as tenth, but no better than that.

My plan for the race tomorrow is simply to try and do my best. I guess we won’t have an easy race.

I think it will be special since it is the last one. I want to enjoy this race and feel very close to the people in the garage, the mechanics, the engineers, everyone. It will be very emotional.”

Laurent Mekies, Sporting Director

“Today’s qualifying result was pretty much in line with the rest of the season, but it’s worth looking at it more closely as there were some positives to be drawn from it. Our main aim was to get into Q3 on the Medium tyre, especially with Charles, to minimise the effect of his three-place grid penalty from the previous round.

Thanks to a great lap, Charles managed to make the cut but after that, he didn’t get the same feeling for the Soft that he had found in Q1, where he was one of the quickest. A shame, as we have seen very often this year how the mid-field is very evenly matched and it doesn’t take much to be at the front or the back. Last week in Sakhir we led this group of cars, but today we are in the middle. Unfortunately, Sebastian only managed to qualify 13th.

Yas Marina has never suited our cars, especially the third and slowest sector, although today we are among the quickest on this part of the track, which is interesting looking to the future. We can as usual expect the race to be closely fought and difficult, with a lot of cars bunched together, given that the performance gaps are down to a few tenths.”