It was a horrible case of deja vu for Sebastian Vettel as a spin cost him a podium finish at least in the Bahrain Grand Prix.
In what was a strange race for the Ferrari driver, he benefitted from Charles Leclerc slower launch to take the lead into the first corner but quickly found himself caught and repassed by his teammate early on.
Then he capitalised on Lewis Hamilton's poor pace on the soft tyre to undo the undercut which the world champion had performed at the first round of pit-stops.
As dramatic as it was unexpected 🔄💥
— Formula 1 (@F1) March 31, 2019
Sebastian Vettel's challenge comes to an abrupt end in Sakhir#BahrainGP 🇧🇭 #F1 pic.twitter.com/QeNjngIIVG
It was after the second stops that everything changed, however, as the Mercedes driver passed Vettel around at the outside at Turn 4 to retake second, only for the German to drop it on the exit.
“Sorry guys, it was my mistake,” he said on the radio on the in-lap. “I got surprised and lost the rear. Really sorry."
Later though, Vettel suggested the strong wind at one of the highest points on the circuit may have contributed.
“The wind probably didn’t help, maybe the fact that Hamilton was ahead, I don’t know," he told reporters.
“I lost the car very suddenly once I spun and it was too late and we had too much damage with the tyres to cause the front wing to fail.”
Hamilton too explained how the conditions played a role: "Obviously the fight I had with Vettel was great fun for me," he said initially.
“If you look at that big flag on top of that tower there’s a massive headwind into Turn 4, so I just gave it everything, I braked later than usual and dove down the outside.
“I don’t think we touched or anything like that."
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What was more frustrating was the eery similarity to the spins he had in Monza and Austin last year when battling another car.
And in a race when Vettel's teammate Charles Leclerc announced himself as a genuine threat at the front, former world champion Nico Rosberg wasn't impressed.
“I can’t believe that we’ve seen exactly the same Sebastian Vettel today as we’ve seen throughout the past year,” he told Sky Sports.
“One wheel-to-wheel battle and he spins it away completely on his own and loses the full weekend. He needs to find a way out of that now.
“Not only did he ruin his own race, but he has a teammate who been delivering unbelievably well all weekend and was so strong, and we should all expect it to continue like that.
“So Sebastian still has a battle on his hands.”
