Part of the post China race interview with Vettel.
Q: No driver likes to move over for his team mate - and you don’t have a history for doing that. So did you move over for Daniel Ricciardo or did you just run wide?
SV: I did move over. Although initially I did not understand why (I had to) because we were on the same tyres, unlike in Bahrain, and that was also the reason why I double-checked when I got the call from the pit wall. At that point Daniel (Ricciardo) was on a different strategy, and I realised that I had to move over, as there was no point of holding him back with him having a two-stop strategy. At that point in time I was still on a three-stop, which we changed later on, also to a two-stop strategy. Towards the end of the race I also realized that I did not have the pace, which was not really clear to me at that earlier stage, and which you could see in the result of me having a 24 second gap. I was even happy to keep the distance to Nico (Hulkenberg), and not lose another position.
Read the rest of the interview
HERE.
For the record, SV was ordered to move over again, this time by Horner. It was not broadcast on the world feed. CH used a very authoritative tone. There was no please in his request.
And during the cool down lap, Vettel wanted an explanation why he was switched to a 2 stop. Horner replied
“We switched the cars because at that point we were looking at three-stopping the better route to you to the end of the race on soft - soft.”
“Then as the gaps weren’t opening up that nicely behind, the two stopper actually was the better race for you. That’s how we ended up where we were.”
SV: No reply.