Renault’s Vitaly Petrov does not regret what he did at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
Russian driver Vitaly Petrov was the highlight of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix as he single handedly ruled out the two time world champion Fernando Alonso of his third drivers’ title. Fernando made one of the biggest mistakes of his life when he decided to respond
to Mark Webber’s early pit stop. The Red Bull driver pitted in the 12th lap and as a result, Fernando pitted in the 16th lap and threw his championship away.
The Spaniard was leading the 2010 drivers’ standings before the grand finale by 246 points and had a margin of 8 and 15 points over Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel respectively. McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton on the other hand was a long shot as he was 24 points
adrift of the championship leader but mathematically had a chance of winning the 2010 title.
Fernando was looking pretty good before the pathetic pit stop as he was in 4th place but got stuck behind Vitaly Petrov after coming out of the pits, for the rest of his race. It seemed that the burden on Fernando’s shoulders had increased and
Fernando was just unable to compete against the young Russian driver as he was struggling to gain some time in the long straights of the glamorous track.
Fernando was furious after the grand prix as a result as he finished in 7th place behind Vitaly Petrov and as a result, the Renault driver stated that he was just racing and there is no reason why Alonso could blame him.
It is true because Formula 1 is a racing sport Fernando, you can’t expect a driver to move aside and let you win. You have to earn it. Vitaly claims that he did his own race and obviously earned his team some valuable points.
“Even Sebastian Vettel in 2008, he was behind [Lewis] Hamilton [in Brazil] and then he passed Lewis, who almost lost the championship. But he was lucky because [Timo] Glock was so slow. He also was not thinking about who he was battling with,” said Vitaly.
The Yas Marina Circuit is not an easy track and overtaking is nearly impossible even for the top running teams. Fernando was just 1 second behind Vitaly almost throughout the race but there was nothing he could do to maintain his championship lead and win
his prestigious third Formula 1 drivers’ title.
“He was angry of course. But what can I do? I did my race. If he got close enough to attack quite aggressively I would maybe not fight too much because I did not want to touch with him because he is fighting for the championship,” he added.
Vitaly Petrov obviously wanted to prove that he is not racing just for fun and is in the sport to obtain the best results by beating the best.
However, Sebastian Vettel thanked Vitaly Petrov for holding Fernando Alonso back as he owes his championship to the Russian dearly. Vitaly’s seat is still not confirmed at Renault for 2011 but this performance will definitely force Renault to think twice
before ruling the Russian out of the championship.
Petrov believes that he has what it takes to be a champion and will keep fighting and proving that he is going to be the next big thing. However, he stated that he did not intend to disturb the two time world champion in any way. He was just doing his job.
“But maybe I should have asked on my team radio, please ask Vettel how much he wants to pay me to help, and then we go to Ferrari and ask them the same too. Then whoever gives the most, we see!” joked the Russian.
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