Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel left the Austrian Grand Prix with “mixed” feelings despite taking the title lead.
Vettel finished third, behind team-mate Kimi Raikkonen and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, enough to put him a point ahead the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton in the championship fight.
He told journalists after the race he was pleased to take a podium, but that the race as a whole was “damage limitation”.
“We had a really good car, really good pace. We were quite far back after lap 1, and recovered well.
“I’m obviously happy with the podium – I think it was a great race – but equally I think there was more up for grabs, so a bit mixed…
“I had to fight with the Renaults and the Haas at the beginning of the race and lost a little bit of ground. I lost a little bit more time at the stop, so for us it was very much damage limitation. But I think the pace was very good, the tyre management was very good. So positive day, but could have been better.”
Vettel was able to close in on team-mate Raikkonen in the closing stages of the race but, despite Vettel’s advantage in the championship standings, Ferrari opted not to switch it’s drivers. The move would have put Vettel four points ahead of Hamilton in the championship standings, but the German backed Ferrari’s decision not to make the switch.
“I was trying to hunt both [Raikkonen and Verstappen] down,” he said. “Kimi was pushing as hard as he could, I was pushing as hard as I could, the both of us were catching, but not enough.
“Obviously, I was further back on lap one, I lost with the pit stop, so I think I arguably had to recover more than others, but I’m fine with that.
“We had great speed, the difference was made with the tyres today, which worked well. The strategy worked well, but I think Max won the race because he deserved it.”
