Sebastian Vettel believes one extra lap was all he needed to claim the win from Valtteri Bottas at the Austrian Grand Prix.
The German seemed unable to match the Mercedes driver for the first half of the race, as the Finn pulled an eight-second gap at one stage, but after the pit-stop, the Ferrari came alive as he reeled in a near four-second margin to be within DRS range with two laps to go.
The reason for that was Bottas struggling with blisters on his super-soft tyres, Vettel tried attacking the Finn in hopes of taking the top step on the podium but ultimately couldn’t get quite close enough to have a realistic chance of passing.
“It was very close and I was told he was in trouble, so I was pushing hard anyway,” the four-time champion explained.
“I felt much happier in the second stint and the second part of the race. The first part of the race I was struggling for the feel of the car but as soon as we put on the super-soft tyre the car came alive and I had really good pace and I was catching little by little but he was also struggling.
Vettel’s hopes were dashed as he finished the race just six-tenths behind the Mercedes, but much like he thought Felipe Massa had held him up while catching Bottas in Sochi, the 30-year-old believed he lost crucial time behind Sergio Perez as he lapped the Force India.
“In the last laps I had Perez to lap which cost me a bit of time but I think I needed one more lap because Bottas was really struggling to get up the hill. I wanted to win but nevertheless, it is a good result.”
Indeed, heading to the British Grand Prix in seven days time, Vettel has a 20-point lead over Lewis Hamilton, the largest advantage since Monaco.