Pole-less Vettel angry with Red Bull engineer

Sat, 13 October 2012, 09:35

Oct.13 (GMM) Championship lead-chaser Sebastian Vettel hit out at his engineer ‘Rocky’ on Saturday after missing pole in Korea.

It was his Red Bull teammate Mark Webber trumping qualifying instead, with Vettel hitting out at his race engineer Guillaume ‘Rocky’ Rocquelin after crossing the chequered flag.

“Why did you not tell me about Massa?” the German, who is 4 points behind Ferrari’s championship leader Fernando Alonso after winning in Singapore and Suzuka, shouted on the radio after the ‘Q3′ session.

Rocky hit back: “What was I supposed to say?”

Vettel told reporters afterwards that Q1 and Q2 went well and that he is “generally happy”.

“The last run (in Q3) … I don’t want to blame it on Felipe,” said the reigning world champion.

“I thought he was coming in but he wasn’t and I caught him in the last sector so I had to back off. It’s not ideal.”

So far, pole sitter and Australian Webber is refusing to back his teammate’s title quest, while Alonso is lurking fourth on the grid.

“You’ve got all the major contenders up there so it’s going to be a fascinating race,” said Red Bull team boss Christian Horner.

According to the Express newspaper, Vettel is sparing no expense in his bid to join greats Juan Manuel Fangio and Michael Schumacher as the winner of a triple-consecutive drivers’ title.

Journalist Bob McKenzie has revealed that, at a cost of almost EUR 250,000, the Red Bull driver has commissioned a private Challenger jet to carry him to the final crucial races of the 2012 championship.

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