Vettel ‘drove like a lion’ with sore neck – Arrivabene

2018 British Grand Prix

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Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivabene praised Sebastian Vettel’s drive to victory in the British Grand Prix following his neck trouble during the race weekend.

Vettel sat out the final laps of the third practice session on Saturday morning due to the problem with his neck. He received physiotherapy on it and was able to take part in qualifying.

He drove the 51-lap race with his next strapped up to ease the strain on it. Vettel took the lead at the start of the race and took victory after passing Valtteri Bottas, who got in front of him during a Safety Car period.

“I’m happy first of all for the team,” Arrivabene told Channel 4. “Starting from Mattia [Binotto], the technical director, together with the other guys in Maranello. He put on the ground a very good car.”

“And the credit that goes to this guy together with Sebastian that today was running like a lion with the pain he got on the neck.”

Ferrari’s win means the leading teams have taken one win in each of the three races in the past three weekends. However Arrivabene said there will be no rest for the team on the first day after the ‘triple header’ tomorrow:

“Tomorrow morning we have the debrief for the race and we are working,” he said. “This is the best was to keep people focused and concentrated.”

Vettel’s win gives him an eight-point lead over Lewis Hamilton in the drivers’ championship. Ferrari now leads Mercedes by 20 points in the teams’ standings.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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8 comments on “Vettel ‘drove like a lion’ with sore neck – Arrivabene”

  1. So Vettel with a strapped-up neck avoids collisions at the start, and executes clean wheel-to-wheel racing? Maybe that needs to become SOP :-)

    1. what you mean with SOP ? have no idea.. thanks

      1. “Standard Operating Procedure” @j3d89

  2. LOL. BTW; ”51-lap race” – 52 actually.

  3. Haha.
    I mis-read the headline as if it were an insult: “Vettel drove like a lion with a sore neck”
    Rather than a compliment: “Vettel drove like a lion, what with that sore neck”.

    1. Sore neck or not, since when are lions allowed to drive?

  4. Wolf said the same about Hamilton. Must be in the PR remit for today. Robots.

    1. True that. Wolf must go to the Zoo ASAP, the lion is blonde, not half-black. I don’t know, could have compared him with a zebra… chased by a lion.

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