MONZA, Italy — Sebastian Vettel said he was clearly upset by being beaten to pole position by teammate Kimi Raikkonen at the Italian Grand Prix, but refused to specify the reasons why.
Vettel qualified 0.161s off Raikkonen at Monza to lock out an all-Ferrari front row, but as he crossed the line believed he had secured pole position. When he was told by his engineer that in fact Raikkonen, who had been on track behind him and benefitted from a slipstream, secured pole position, Vettel replied in a flat tone “we speak after”.
Asked after the session what needed to be discussed with the team, Vettel said: “Clearly I wasn’t happy — but I don’t tell you why.”
Vettel is currently 68 points ahead of Raikkonen in the drivers’ standings and 17 points behind championship leader Lewis Hamilton. But despite being Ferrari’s best chance of winning the title, Vettel insists there will be no team orders on Sunday.
“Is Kimi allowed to win? Well, if he’s starting from pole, I guess he’s allowed to win,” Vettel said. “It’s a long race. Obviously he wants to win, I want to win. Hopefully one of us will win.”
But Vettel said starting alongside Raikkonen on the front row would not have a big impact on his approach to the first corner.
“Obviously you are still always trying to get out ahead, no matter who you’re racing but for sure you try to avoid contact but then again, as I said, you try to avoid that anyway. It’s not like there’s another car and you say yeah, I’m happy to make contact. With our cars you can’t really afford to touch or be touched.”