Valtteri Bottas failed to put a point on the board in Abu Dhabi, but the Finn was nevertheless in good spirits as he commended his Alfa Romeo team for its sacrificial race strategy and for prioritizing its P6 position in the Constructors' championship versus Aston Martin.
Alfa held only a four-point lead in the standings against Team Silverstone before Sunday's season finale at Yas Marina.
But with an estimated $12 million at stake – the difference between sixth and seventh in the championship – the Hinwil squad and its drivers set out knew where their priorities lay.
Alfa's game plan called for Bottas and teammate Zhou Guanyu, not to beat their Aston rivals, but to hinder their progress as much as possible early on to limit their eventual points haul at the checkered.
While the ploy was successful, Alfa would readily admit that Daniel Ricciardo's staunch defense of his P9 position against Vettel in the latter part of the race may have saved the Swiss outfit's day.
In the end, Alfa and Aston finished level in the championship, but Bottas' P5 at Imola surpassed Aston's onw best result.
"I am really pleased for the team, it's an important result and you can see what it means for everyone of us," said Bottas after the race.
"It was close, very close in our battle for sixth in the championship, but we did it and I am proud of everyone tonight.
"The only thing that mattered to us today was the standings results and the strategy we chose was quite defensive, trying to hold position and slow down our rivals when we found ourselves in front of them.
"It worked, but it was a tense few moments in the final lap: waiting to hear if we had made it gave me a bit of a sense of deja vu – although tonight we had a much more positive ending than last time around."
Zhou, who concluded Sunday's race in P12, three spots ahead of Bottas, was as happy as his teammate with his team had managed its fortunes at Yas Marina.
"I am so proud of this team, not just for tonight but for the whole season," commented the Chinese driver.
"We gave everything in the race and, despite not scoring points, we achieved our target, which was finishing P6 in the championship.
"We had to sacrifice my strategy to hold on through the last laps, and I think we did a good job with that.
"We truly gave it all out there, it was an amazing fight on track and I think also the best overtake I’ve done all season.
"We got what we deserved after such a long year."
Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter
