Vettel feels VSC cost him podium chance

Sebastian Vettel believes he had a chance of finishing on the podium but for the timing of a Virtual Safety Car during the United States Grand Prix.

Starting from sixth on the grid, Vettel made little progress in the first part of the race but closed in on team-mate Kimi Raikkonen in the second stint and was up to fifth place as a result of Max Verstappen's slow pit stop. Having made his final stop to cement the advantage over the Red Bull, Vettel believes Ferrari had a chance of challenging for the podium before Verstappen retired and neutralised the race.

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“I think we had a good race," Vettel said. "We stayed out longer, other people in front of us pitted sooner so I think it was a chance for us to try something different.

"Then I think we pitted early to go on the medium tyre to keep track position to Max, obviously a lap later or two laps later the Virtual Safety Car comes out so that wasn’t ideal. Otherwise I think we could have had a crack at the podium.

"But all in all the race was a lot better than qualifying in terms of competitiveness. Obviously a shame that we didn’t get both cars to the chequered flag.”

And Vettel believes he was lucky to still be in the race after almost being collected by a collision between Valtteri Bottas and Nico Hulkenberg at Turn 1.

“First corner I just looked at it, in the end I was lucky that I could carry on without damage. The two cars behind me were fighting each other and then the angle becomes quite narrow for Turn 1.

"Then obviously I had no chance to see what was going on behind me and what they were on about, so as I said in the end I am lucky that it was not a consequence that somebody hit me and I spun around."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.