“We lost it in the start”: Brazilian GP team radio highlights

Valtteri Bottas admitted he’d lost his chance to win the Brazilian Grand Prix when Sebastian Vettel passed him on the run to the first corner.

Here are the team radio highlights from the race.

Ferrari had another pre-race scare on Kimi Raikkonen’s car.

To Raikkonen: “OK Kimi I’ll go through the normal stuff in a second but just to bring you up to speed where we are, the reason why all the fuss earlier was we saw an issue with the telemetry signal being a bit weak so we’re worried we migh tlose telemetry in the race. We did then have problems connecting to the car but that seems to have resolved itself. So the only thing to remind you of in the event we do have a problem with telemetry is to look after your fuel. You’ve got your display, you know how to use it.

Kevin Magnussen and Stoffel Vandoorne went out in a crash at turn one, while Esteban Ocon also retired on the first lap after being hit by Romain Grosjean.

Magnussen: “My suspension is gone. Do you want to stop on the track?”
“OK, OK.”

“If you can drive back it would be very slowly back.”
Ocon: “I’m not sure I can. Should I try?”
“Yes. I can’t tell what the car’s like from here. OK park it, find a safe place, turn the engine off.

To Hulkenberg: “OK right-hand-side tyres are starting to get into the danger zone.”

Having started in the pits Lewis Hamilton made rapid progress through the field.

To Perez: “Hamilton is now the car behind, one-and-a-half seconds behind on softs, he’s eight tenths of a second faster.”

To Ricciardo: “Very good. Next one: Sainz.”

“Max how is our pace relative to Kim ahead?”
Verstappen: “I’m faster but I’m stuck.”
“Understood, thank you.”

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Hamilton: “I see Vettel’s pulling away.”
“Gap to Vettel at the moment 15 seconds. He needs to start managing some more.”

Raikkonen: “The tyres don’t feel great, they’re moving around a lot.”

To Ricciardo: “That’s a good lap, same pace as Hamilton, same pace as Verstappen on his supers.”

Felipe Massa passed Fernando Alonso at the restart and the McLaren driver was eager to get back on terms with the Williams.

“We are P9. There are two cars in front yet to stop. That’s Ricciardo and Perez. You are much quicker than Perez. Both should come out behind you. How you are driving the tyres should be good to the end.”
Alonso: “Yeah I would like to catch Massa to have the DRS.”

“OK so it’s important to close that gap now, close that lap.”

Hamilton: “The super-soft’s looking quite good.”

“Fernando G6. 100% pace. How’s the balance.?”
Alonso: “A little bit oversteering. And I cannot use G6 now, it’s wasting.”
“Understood.”

Hamilton: “Good pace but the rear doesn’t feel spectacular.”

Alonso: “Gap to Massa every lap.”
“Last lap 2.8. Perez 6.7.”
Alonso: “Perez I don’t care. He will come, there is nothing we can do.”

It was a disappointing birthday weekend for Brendon Hartley.

To Hartley: “Box we are to retire the car.”

“OK so this will be blue flags for Stroll and Grosjean. They’re racing.”
Verstappen: “They just keep racing.”

Mercedes believed Hamilton could get onto the podium.

To Hamilton: “Currently P5 at the moment. We are chasing a podium.”

Grosjean was briefly held up by Nico Hulkenberg, who was a lap ahead of him, then received the news about his penalty for hitting Ocon.

Grosjean: “OK if I’m faster than the guy, can I overtake or can I not?”
“If you’re faster you can overtake. He has to pull away.”

“Box now Romain, we have a 12-second penalty, box now.”
Grosjean: “For what?
For the Ocon incident.”
Grosjean: “You must be kidding me.”

Hamilton: “Just to make a note of car feeling different.”
“OK, copy.”

“Do you think you can cope with plus one on your brake balance offset?”
Verstappen: “No. The tyres feel like rocks. So stiff. Unbelievable.”

Sebastian Vettel clinched the victory while Massa held off Alonso to the delight of his team and son Felipinho.

“Yes! We won it! Great drive.”
Grande gara.”
“Grazie ragazzi. Forza Ferrari.”

“So good job Valtteri. Just didn’t fall our way today.”
Bottas: “Yeah sorry guys we lost it in the start. Otherwise the pace was OK compared to Ferrari but there was nothing we could do. Thank you guys.”

To Hamilton: “Nice work Lewis. That was close mate very close but P4, got to be hapy with that, only 5.4 seconds off the lead.”

“Brilliant job Felipe.”
“Thank you Felipe, terrific job, that was such a great drive. Thank you.”
“Obrigado, Felipe. Absolutely brilliant drive. Nice job. It’s been an absolute pleasure.”
“Well done mate, brilliant drive. Thank you so much. Excellent, excellent drive.”
Massa: “Thank you mate, thank you.”
“Daddy I’m so proud of you and wherever you go I will support you. I love you. By the way, I loved your start.”

“OK Fernando nice race. P8. Almost had him.”
Alonso: “Yeah very good. We definitely deserved the points today. Deserved the points many times but today we achieve it. Obviously with a normal speed we could finish top five, top four easily. So next year’s going to be fun.”
“Yeah mate. Great race and a great weekend.”

The full race radio transcript will be published later this week.

2017 Brazilian Grand Prix

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• “We lost it in the start”: Brazilian GP team radio highlights

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