Though slightly disappointed to finish second to Lewis Hamilton at the Canadian Grand Prix, Sebastian Vettel says Ferrari’s performance in Montreal shows it can be a genuine threat to Mercedes.
Having qualified a close third, the German made a tremendous start to jump both Mercedes and lead into the first corner. Vettel then dropped back behind Hamilton due to a different strategy, but he still managed to keep the Briton on his toes all the way to cross the line only five seconds adrift.
“Overall it’s been a great weekend for us,” said Vettel, with Ferrari introducing its upgraded turbocharger in Canada. “We struggled a little bit in the last couple of races and at the beginning of the season. Now [we can] see the car has performance and unleash it, it was a really fun race. I really enjoyed it.”
Vettel pitted on lap 10 to replace his ultrasoft tyres with supersofts. With the soft compound mandated by Pirelli for the race, the four-time world champion thus had to do an extra stop compared to Hamilton.
“We committed fairly to that strategy and it was the right thing to do in terms of getting to the chequered flag the quickest way possible,” Vettel commented.
“Obviously Lewis then had the chance to stay out and see what the others are doing.
“We lost track position and did not expect at that point that the ultrasoft, then the soft would last that long. I was also surprised to see my supersoft last.
“The degradation was not maybe as high as we expected it. Maybe that’s where we lost the race but I want to make one thing clear: I am not a fan of blaming anyone or anything.
“We had a difficult start to the season because we were not really able to show the true performance of the car. This was maybe the first clean weekend we had if you look at Saturday and Sunday.
“I did not get the result that I was hoping for, especially after the start but I was enjoying it a lot. The last 30 laps I was just flat out, maybe pushing a little bit too hard at times but I felt great and that’s what racing should be about.”
REPORT: Hamilton beat Vettel to win in Canada
AS IT HAPPENED: Canadian Grand Prix
Breakfast with ... David Hobbs
Technical feature: Under the skin of the Haas VF-16
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