Vettel: Ferrari order strategy dictated Raikkonen tow

Sebastian Vettel has played down the significance of Ferrari’s decision to make him complete his final qualifying lap in front of teammate Kimi Raikkonen, giving the Finn a vital tow, which saw him miss out on pole position at Monza.

The German driver led out his Ferrari teammate, and was directly behind Formula 1 world title rival Lewis Hamilton in his Mercedes, with his final Q3 lap provisionally handing him pole position by beating the British driver’s time to go top.

But his joy was short-lived as Raikkonen displaced them both by taking pole position with a 1m 19.119s to claim the fastest lap in F1 history.

Vettel’s radio messages at the end of Q3, which were broadcast on TV, heard him celebrating his provisional pole before being told Raikkonen had beaten him to which he replied “we will talk about this later”.

The Ferrari driver has refused to clarify his radio comments in the post-qualifying press conference and put down the tow strategy for Raikkonen as the team’s regular rotation policy having gained a tow from his teammate last time out.

“We have an order that changes every weekend and this weekend it was Kimi to go second. Simple.” Vettel said.

“Clearly I wasn’t happy [about losing pole position] but I don’t tell you why.”

Vettel also moved to diffuse claims Raikkonen will be forced by team orders to let him win with focus on his F1 world championship charge against Hamilton being second in the standings and 17 points behind the Mercedes driver.

“If he’s starting from pole, I guess he’s allowed to win,” he said. “It’s a long race. Obviously he wants to win, I want to win. Hopefully one of us will win.”

The Ferrari driver accepted his final lap wasn’t ‘tidy’ enough to take pole outright and conceded he felt ‘lucky’ to take second place ahead of Hamilton – duly handing Ferrari its 60^th front row lockout in F1.

“It is always like this in Monza and I think for him [Raikkonen] he was in a sweet spot,” he said. “I think my last run was okay. My lap wasn’t very good, I think we can have a look but for now it’s good to have both cars on the front row.

“It was not a tidy lap. I think the other laps were actually better. I lost a bit in the first chicane, the second chicane, the Lesmos, pretty much a bit everywhere.

“I think the last sector was okay but also not fantastic. It was just not a good lap and not good enough. Obviously lucky to get second instead of third. Just not good enough.”