Arrivabene 'very angry' at Ferrari's Suzuka mistake

Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivabene was left furious by the farcical strategy call that left Sebastian Vettel languishing ninth-fastest in qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix. Vettel is set to lose even more ground to Lewis Hamilton in the standings after the Mercedes man took pole at Suzuka.

Vettel could ill-afford any mistakes, bringing a 50-point deficit to Hamilton to Japan, but his last hopes of beating the Brit to a fifth world title may have gone up in smoke on Saturday.

After a rain shower had curtailed Q2, Ferrari fitted Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen with intermediate tyres – only for all eight other cars to opt for slicks.

While the red cars toured the track to pit for new rubber, Hamilton clocked one minute 27.760 seconds to top the timesheets, only for rain to then arrive and give Vettel and Raikkonen a shrinking window to set competitive times – errors at Spoon costing both and enraging Arrivabene.

"From the way things were done, I do not think that pole position was within our reach, but what happened today is unacceptable," he told Motorsport.com

Fan forum ?????????? #Seb5 #Kimi7 #JapaneseGP ????????? ! pic.twitter.com/JGZGcYIxqm — Scuderia Ferrari (@ScuderiaFerrari) October 6, 2018

"I am very angry. It is not the first time that these mistakes have occurred. I do not feel like pointing my fingers at someone in particular, but I'm very disappointed.

"Unlike on other occasions, it was easy to understand what was happening on the track, as all our opponents left the pits with slicks.

"Sometimes it is more useful to take your eyes off computers and watch the track, using common sense.

"It is true that we are a young team, and we are probably missing an 'old hand', an experienced person capable of reading situations correctly and quickly."

Vettel will start the race eighth, having been elevated a place as a result of Esteban Ocon's grid penalty.

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