Sebastian Vettel suffered his second alternator related retirement of the 2012 season after an Italian GP weekend when Red Bull struggled for pace.
Before the retirement cost him sixth place Vettel had already been delayed by a drive through penalty for an incident with Fernando Alonso.
Despite his misfortune, Vettel insisted that he was happy with the speed he was able to show.
“We lost some points today, obviously we didn’t finish, and it doesn’t help if the others are finishing,” said Vettel. “All in all I think we were more or less where we deserved to be. We did the best we could, we could see the pace was not as strong as the leaders. It was a good race for us, given the lack of pace.
“There are not so many straight lines in the next couple of races, at least different types, so we shouldn’t lose so much.
“There’s a long way ahead of us. We need to improve the car, we could see today the pace was not there, nevertheless we were in a position to finish fourth or fifth, something like that.”
Meanwhile Vettel said that his drive through penalty was not justified: “From my point of view no, but it’s not for me to judge.”
Adam Cooper F1 