Sebastian Vettel lost the battle against Lewis Hamilton at the Spanish Grand Prix, but the fight for the Formula One title continues, as the Scuderia Ferrari driver still has a six-point advantage over his main rival, ahead of the 2017 Monaco Grand Prix, scheduled to take place next week.
Despite the fact that Sebastian Vettel had a perfect start and managed to immediately overtake Lewis Hamilton, the German driver lost out on strategy and eventually had to settle for second place. Vettel can take heart, however, from the fact that the difference between the winner and runner-up came down only to a choice of team strategy that this time unfortunately went Mercedes’ way, as Hamilton finished the race on a faster set of tires than Vettel, passing the German on Lap 43 of 66 and conserving his tires as he took the win at the Circuit de Catalunya.
“I think we can be very happy, but today we’re not entirely happy because the win was there. The car was quick enough but the way the race happened, it wasn’t meant to be. The most important thing is that we were there. Once again fighting, hanging in there, not much missing at the end. I was really happy with the first part of the race, but then I looked down and saw I had lost an awful lot of time, so I wasn’t that happy because the real fight was with Lewis.” – Sebastian Vettel said, in regards to the precious time lost behind Valtteri Bottas, who did everything possible to block the Scuderia Ferrari driver and thus help his teammate.
Those decisive seconds meant that when Sebastian came out from a second pit stop he was very close to Lewis Hamilton, who had the tyre advantage for the last part of the race. However, the Scuderia Ferrari driver remains confident and is pleased with the fact that the Maranello team was once again able to fight with its rival, although Mercedes brought a major power unit update for the 2017 Spanish Grand Prix: “The car is good, the team is in great form. We are very happy when we have the chance to race Mercedes. They have been proving over and over in the last few years that they are the team to beat. We are giving them, so far, a good run for their money.” – Sebastian Vettel concluded.
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