Fernando Alonso says Sebastian Vettel’s RB7 ‘out of reach’ – Formula 1 news
Fernando Alonso of the Ferrari team has said that the Red Bull of defending champion, Sebastian Vettel, is the fastest car of 2011 and hence is out of reach of Ferrari 150° Italia.
Apart from Vettel, the Spaniard told that a podium finish in Sepang was possible for him and teammate, Felipe Massa.
Alonso and Massa were well behind the race leader Vettel in both the opening races of the 2011 season. Although Alonso thinks that podium was possible for the Ferrari team, yet he thinks that the RB7 of Vettel is flying out of reach.
“Clearly, I would like to always be fighting for the win but, at the moment, one car, Vettel's Red Bull, seems to be out of reach,” commented Alonso.
The Spaniard was able to put on a good show in Sepang when he was neck to neck with McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton, fighting for the lowest stair of the podium, only before they had a crash which compromised their chances of a podium finish.
“I was disappointed not to get to the podium in Malaysia, as it was within my reach and it would have been a great result. It would also have been useful in terms of being a nice morale booster,” said the Spaniard.
Alonso’s car had a problem in the closing laps of the race when he was inches behind the McLaren of Lewis Hamilton. The Drag Reduction System of the Spaniard’s car malfunctioned after which he was left to overtake Hamilton in a conventional way which was
clearly not possible.
Alonso commented that if the DRS had worked properly, he could have passed Hamilton’s car in the pit straights. Alonso and Hamilton got 20 seconds added time to their elapsed time after they both were involved in a crash in the final few laps of the race.
The Spaniard retained his sixth position after the race but Hamilton was down to eighth position after finishing seventh in the race.
The Spaniard stated that it is part of the game but Ferrari’s next target will be to perform well in the Chinese Grand Prix with the same package because new updates will be brought in the European phase of the 2011 season.
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