Vettel ‘not worried’ about neck pain hurting British GP charge

Sebastian Vettel is confident a neck injury won’t hamper his efforts in the British Grand Prix despite suffering with pain which impacted his final practice session and qualifying at Silverstone.

The German driver missed out on pole position to Lewis Hamilton by 0.044s at Silverstone but was relatively content with securing a front row start with Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikkonen directly behind him on the grid to attack in the race.

Vettel had to cut short his FP3 programme due to neck pain, which was heavily taped up ahead of qualifying, but the Formula 1 world championship leader was quick to diffuse any concerns the injury would impact his race tomorrow.

“It wasn’t the most enjoyable session but I did the session so it was fine,” Vettel said about the neck pain. “We had to call it a bit earlier this morning than I wanted and it was fine in qualifying.

“I don’t know what happened but it went stiff and then we loosened it up. For tomorrow I think the night will help so I’m not worried.

“Also the speed tomorrow is less than in qualifying because you have more fuel and you will be a bit slower so it’s going to be okay.”

Vettel feels the intensity and physical demands from the current generation of F1 cars is something that should be relished, with the Silverstone lap record broken on multiple occasions through practice and qualifying this weekend, and sees tyre life as being the key to Ferrari finding an edge on Mercedes in the race.

“These are the fastest cars that we’ve ever had and I hope it will be because next year I guess the cars will be a bit slower,” Vettel said.

“I think it depends largely on the tyres to be honest, if they’re holding up well and consistent enough then I think we can push. If not, then obviously it takes a lot of intensity out.”