After 19 consecutive points finishes, Sebastian Vettel’s run came to an end in Abu Dhabi.
When Sebastian Vettel made an excellent start from pole position and led comfortably into the first corner the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix looked like going the way of many others this season. Nine times before Sebastian Vettel led away from pole; for his other two victories he took the lead shortly after the lights went out. Nobody was expecting him to spin off the track at Turn Two and end up stationary on the grass – but that’s what happened, as a puncture ended the World Champion’s race early.
“On the exit of the first corner, everything seemed fine and then turning into the second corner I could feel that something was odd on the rear right,” explained Vettel. “I had to catch the car surprisingly and then the second time, I couldn’t do it anymore, as I’d lost too much air in tyre. I had a puncture and spun off. When I got back to the pits, the resulting suspension damage meant we couldn’t carry on. There wasn’t anything we could have done better really this weekend; we just need to look at what had caused the puncture. I had a good start and I was very happy with the car up until that point. To lose the race there, so early on, it hurts for sure. There wasn’t much we could do, so after that I took theopportunity to learn a little bit on the pit wall.”
Vettel had limped back to the pits, but the damage to his suspension and wheel hub, caused both by his track exit and by dragging the car around 5km of circuit on three wheels, caused his engineers to abandon any intention of sending him out again.
“After such a great qualifying yesterday, it was a really frustrating race,” added team principal Christian Horner. “Sebastian made a perfect start and had a clear lead into the first corner and then an instantaneous loss of pressure in the tyre made him a complete passenger. The resulting suspension damage from that meant there was no alternative but to retire the car today.”
This was Red Bull Racing’s second retirement of the season, the first coming due to Mark Webber spinning out after a collision at Monza.