Vettel: Ferrari tyre gamble proved a disadvantage

Sebastian Vettel believes Ferrari’s tyre gamble at the Brazilian Grand Prix ultimately turned out to be a “disadvantage” as he endured a frustrating race.

Vettel joined race-winner Lewis Hamilton on the front-row and, along with Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikkonen, were the only two drivers in the top 10 to start on Pirelli’s mid-range Soft compound tyre, with the rest all on Supersofts – the fastest available tyre in Brazil.

The qualifying gamble had been tipped as handing Ferrari an advantage in terms of strategy against its chief rival Mercedes, but Vettel lost ground at the start and ultimately finished last of the top six drivers after switching onto a two-stop strategy.

“I don’t think it was an advantage to be honest starting with the Soft,” Vettel admitted. The Supersofts lasted a longer time, longer than I think we all expected.

“But that’s how it is. We were hoping for an advantage but in the end it wasn’t an advantage.

“In the end I think maybe it was a disadvantage because the Supersofts lasted very long, pace was good, and we had the disadvantage at the start.”

Vettel fell behind Valtteri Bottas off the line and also lost early places to Max Verstappen and Raikkonen when he ran wide at Turn 4. He repassed his teammate during the pit stops but later allowed him through to attack the leaders, with the Finn completing the podium.

When asked to rate his day out of 10, Vettel replied: “Well I tried everything but obviously in terms of the result, one, and one being bad.

“It’s just a difficult afternoon, trying to - I don’t think we were on top of the car or the tyres.

“All in all it was a bit of a tricky afternoon, so not happy at all. Not a good day for us losing out on the constructors.

“I am happy that Kimi got on the podium at least. But my race started quite bad and finished quite bad.”