MEXICO CITY (AFP) – Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari had a day to forget in Sunday’s Mexican Grand Prix as the team suffered their first double retirement since the 2006 Australian Grand Prix.
Kimi Raikkonen retired after a collision with Finnish compatriot Valtteri Bottas of Williams while Vettel had an incident-packed race before crashing out on lap 50, having survived a first lap collision with Autralian Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull.
“I had a bad start,” said the former four-time world champion.
“These things happen – it’s racing. The race was pretty much lost. I tried to come back, but two mistakes did not help.
“The last mistake was my own fault, so I’m not proud of it. We were very close to Mercedes in terms of pace, as close as we have been for a while. We were forcing it.”
Asked about his incident with Ricciardo, he added: ”Turn one, start of the race?
“He was closing the door, but he was not next to me, but it was too late and I had a bad feeling into turn two and three.
“This kind of stuff, you can’t do it on purpose, so I’m not blaming him, but obviously it is a pain when someone hits you in turn one.”