For Sebastian Vettel, Sunday's United States Grand Prix was a must-win race in his rapidly dwindling bid to claim a fifth world championship. And for a few minutes at the start of the race it looked like he was actually going to pull it off.
Vettel got a better start when the lights went out and out-dragged Lewis Hamilton up the steep climb to turn 1. He was then able to pull away from the Mercedes over the next few laps to put himself out of DRS range.
But then the balance of power shifted. Hamilton abruptly wiped out the gap to his rival, and passed the Ferrari on lap 6 with surprising ease.
“Lewis was able to easily close the gap," Vettel admitted. "And easily get DRS.
“I tried to block," Vettel insisted. "Maybe I could have done a bit more. But he was so much quicker, it didn’t really matter.
“[It's] disappointing to lose the lead when you have it," he admitted. "But with the difference in pace they had on us today, it probably wasn’t our race to win.
“I wasn’t expecting to struggle that much," he added. "Obviously the first stint I was struggling quite a lot with tyres.
"Lewis was a lot quicker also when he got past. He was just playing. He could have been a lot faster at that point, also when you compare with Valtteri.
"Towards the end it was a bit more normal, but by the end it was lost," he sighed. "Not a good day."
By lap 16, Vettel was complaining of blistering on the left front ultrasoft tyre he had started the race with. He used the local waved yellows for Daniel Ricciardo's retirement to dive into pit lane for his first stop of the day.
Once he came back out, Vettel put the new set of soft compound tyres to good use. He logged the fastest lap of the race up to that point, forcing Mercedes to respond. When Hamilton exited pit lane, the pair were side-by-side on the track.
Once again, Hamilton came out on top in that encounter. Ferrari switched to plan B, pitting Vettel a second time on lap 40 to give him a fresher set of supersofts.
The strategy was largely a success in terms of damage limitation. It allowed him to pass Valtteri Bottas, Max Verstappen and Kimi Raikkonen, all of whom were on worn tyres. However, he was still ten seconds behind Hamilton at the chequered flag.
"Not quick enough, I think that sums it up," he said, rejecting the suggestion that he'd had to lift off during the race to save fuel.
"No, I think Kimi [Raikkonen] probably struggled a bit more than I did," he said. "I saved up a bit more in the middle so I had more to push at the end."
Salvaging second place means that Vettel's championship hopes are still mathematically alive. But with a 66 point deficit to Hamilton in the standings, Vettel knows his chances of taking the title are fading fast.
Hamilton can clinch the title next weekend by finishing in fifth place or better, regardless of what Vettel does.
"I didn't come here with a calculator in my pocket," said Vettel when asked what his plans were for the next race. "I plan to do the same in Mexico [as I did here].
"As a team we want to win. I thought that we could today and we didn't, so that's why I'm not so happy."
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