Ferrari has denied that a slow pit stop for Fernando Alonso and traffic cost him Sunday’s win in Abu Dhabi, despite the Spaniard only finishing eight seconds behind winner Lewis Hamilton.
Team principal, Stefano Domenicali, believes Hamilton had the pace to maintain the gap to Alonso no matter what, but concedes the slow stop was unfortunate.
“For sure I have to say that the second place showed the performance that we had,” Autosport quote him as saying.
“We had a little issue on the pitstop but that was not the real issue – and on that, you cannot say anything. It was unfortunate,” he added.
He also dismissed traffic as a factor as it was the same situation for everyone.
“I have to say with the backmarkers it was not easy for everyone, not only for Felipe [Massa]. Then Lewis had the same issue with some backmarkers. So it was not easy for everyone.”
Domenicali believes it was the McLaren drivers pace on the harder compound tyre which sealed the win for the 26-year-old.
“But the difference was made by Lewis when he had two very quick laps with the medium tyres straight away. He was able to pull out the gap and then, of course, he managed the situation.”
