Vettel takes blame for Turkish GP dry tyre blunder

Sebastian Vettel held himself accountable for the disastrous dry tyre call that ruined his chances of scoring points in Sunday's Turkish Grand Prix.

The Aston Martin driver was running just inside the top ten when he decided to shed his intermediate tyres after 36 laps and bolt on a set of mediums despite the still damp track conditions.

The choice raised a few eyebrows in the pitlane but rival teams were nevertheless attentive to Vettel's bold strategy.

Alas, a track that remained damp and more drizzles of rain squandered the German's plan almost immediately, forcing him to revert in short order to inters.

"I couldn’t make them work, it was the wrong call," Vettel admitted. "I wanted to try because there wasn’t much rubber left on the inters so I thought that the dries would be different or a little bit better as the grip is higher.

"I couldn’t break the tyre in and I couldn’t get any grip so we lost the race.

"It is a no-brainer [call] now but at that time I don't know. I was tempted some laps before and the inters were not getting any better.

"If you look at the inter tyres there is nothing left on them, they look like a slick, so I think I had reason but obviously it was the wrong decision.

"We lost the run for points, maybe one or two but in the end, we didn’t get any."

• Read also: F1i's Driver Ratings for the 2021 Turkish GP

Vettel said Istanbul Park's track surface, which was water-blasted ahead of last weekend's race to improve grip levels, was "good fun but also a bit strange, similar to last year with the intermediates and staying out so long."

"At some point I thought it was ready for dry tyres so I took the risk but it didn't work," he added.

"Last year I was thinking 15 laps to go that I wanted to try the slick tyres when the track was a little bit worse so I thought it was worth a go but it proved to be wrong."

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