Sebastian Vettel was frustrated not to earn Ferrari a double podium at the Austrian Grand Prix.
The German faced a recovery through the field after an air pressure problem left him ninth on the grid after qualifying, but would be fourth after the pit-stop phase following a strong first stint.
After being passed by Max Verstappen though, he would complete a second stop for soft tyres but his attempted charge would fall just shy of catching Valtteri Bottas for third.
“It was an almost weekend, that’s probably the right word," he reflected.
“Obviously yesterday hurt us with the pace that we had today. Otherwise, we could have had a better race, working better as a team and defending to the cars behind but it wasn’t the case."
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Indeed, Vettel's first pit-stop saw Ferrari not ready with the tyres, something that cost him several crucial seconds which may have stopped him reaching the top three.
“It was fun, there were some wheel-to-wheel battles at the start and at the end but I’m not entirely happy as I felt the team deserved to have both cars on the podium, with one on the top," he explained.
“This track is more in our favour than other tracks so we need to keep working but I’m quite positive that at some point we’ll have the car to win.”
Teammate Charles Leclerc almost did just that, leading around 60 of the 71 laps, but would be passed by Verstappen with two laps to go after making contact at Turn 3.
A move which the stewards later deemed a racing incident.
“I’m not a big fan of passing on these decisions to people somewhere sat in chairs. I think we’re the best to judge in the car," Vettel said before the decision was made.
“It’s racing, we’re not fighting for Kindergarten Cup. We are all adults, some younger, some older, but they should leave us alone.”
