Vettel owns up to mistake as Ferrari labours
Sebastian Vettel has admitted he 'made a mistake' in convincing Ferrari to amend his strategy as he endured a lonely run to fifth position in his home German Grand Prix.
On a weekend that has seen Red Bull consolidate its recent run of form as Mercedes' most competitive rivals, Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen endured trouble-free but uneventful afternoons as they laboured to fifth and sixth respectively.
RESULTS: German Grand Prix - Race results
Slipping away from the front fight early on, Vettel attempted to haul himself into the mix by running longer on his first and second stints so he wouldn't have to go as long at the end. However, he admits he shouldn't have interfered with the original plan.
"I just had a look at that now and I think I did a mistake because we could have had a chance to put the cars in front under more pressure, but we were talking about it a long time in the race.
"I don't know how much it was broadcasted or not, but yeah as I said before we were obviously not so great at the end of the stints and struggling a bit with the tyres, and obviously I didn't want to make the last stint too long for that reason. Arguably I was too conservative."
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With Ferrari slipping behind Red Bull in the fight for second in the constructors' standings for the first time this season, Vettel admits he was surprised to be cast adrift from start-to-finish.
"Unfortunately we were a bit far from the cars in front, especially after the first two stints. For sure we're trying to push on and trying to stay as close as possible, you never know, I think we had some drops at the end, unfortunately not enough.
"I think certainly not happy, racing at home is always something special and in that regard it wasn't a special race, but I think we like yesterday, struggled a little bit to get the balance right and the car was sliding a little bit too much which cost us life on the tyres and ultimately performance at the end of the stint, to sum it up we were not quick enough."
