Vitaly Petrov was pleased to have spotted Michael Schumacher in his wing mirrors during Sunday’s European Grand Prix in Valencia, with the Mercedes having exiting the pits and lightly tagged the back of his Renault. As the Russian - who was not affected by the incident – went on to claim 15th place, team-mate Nick Heidfeld picked up the final point in tenth.
“The incident with Schumacher did not cause a puncture,” Petrov explained after the race. “He seemed to exit the pits very quickly and did not seem to be able to stop his car coming into the first corner. Luckily, I saw him in my mirror but there was still some contact. We need to sit down now and carefully analyse where and why we are losing pace so we can have a better race at Silverstone.”
Heidfeld also struggled to be upbeat, despite managing to climb to within one point of his team-mate in the championship standings.
“What cost us a little bit today was our starts,” said the German. “I lost a position to Adrian (Sutil) and then had to fight hard not to lose more. I finished more or less where I had been for the majority of the race (behind Sutil); I managed to overtake him once but then he used DRS to get past me and unfortunately I was not able to attack any harder to get by him.
“It’s still another point gained for the team, but I did not expect to finish behind one Force India and one Toro Rosso. Overall this weekend, we pushed hard but it just has not been possible to get the pace out of the car that we wanted at this track.”
See also:
Petrov incident cost me points, says Schumacher
Series
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Nick Heidfeld
Michael Schumacher
Vitaly Petrov
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| Pos. | Driver | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. |  S. Vettel | Red Bull | 1:39:36.169 |
| 2. | F. Alonso | Ferrari | +10.891 |
| 3. | M. Webber | Red Bull | +27.255 |
| 4. | L. Hamilton | McLaren | +46.190 |
| 5. | F. Massa | Ferrari | +51.705 |
| 6. | J. Button | McLaren | +1:00.065 |
| 7. | N. Rosberg | Mercedes | +1:38.090 |
| 8. | J. Alguersuari | Toro Rosso | +1 Lap |
| 9. | A. Sutil | Force India | +1 Lap |
| 10. | N. Heidfeld | Lotus Renault | +1 Lap |
| Full results | |||
| Vitaly Petrov | |||
|---|---|---|---|
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| More Vitaly Petrov photos | |||
| Michael Schumacher | |||
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| More Michael Schumacher photos | |||
| Nick Heidfeld | |||
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| More Nick Heidfeld photos | |||
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