Sebastian Vettel conceded Ferrari are second best to Mercedes at this stage of the Formula 1 season, that despite claiming victory at the Australian GP.
The German saw the stars align in his favour during Sunday’s race in Melbourne as a Virtual Safety Car was called for the stricken Haas of Romain Grosjean after he had decided to stay out much longer than long-time leader Lewis Hamilton.
Usually, the 12-second gap he had on the world champion would have been far from sufficient to pit and emerge ahead, but with the Briton trundling at a reduced speed and a “software bug” meaning Mercedes miscalculated Hamilton’s pace, it was enough for the Scuderia driver to remain in front and stay there to the finish.
“At the end of the first stint, I lost a bit of the connection to Lewis and Kimi [Raikkonen] ahead,” Vettel commented.
“I was praying for a Safety Car and then there was a car stopped in Turn 4 and then the Haas stopped in the exit of Turn 2 and when I saw it I was full of adrenaline.
“The race is frozen but to come into the pits on the limit and when I got out ahead I knew it was difficult to pass.”
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In a Grand Prix which bore many hallmarks from 12 months ago, with Vettel able to use the pit-stop phase to jump ahead, the four-time world champion admitted the circumstances were different this year.
“If you look at the gaps the whole weekend, we are not yet a true match [for Mercedes],” he said.
“Last year we had more pace relative [to Mercedes], last year we were putting them under pressure, today I think we didn’t have the true race pace to match them.
“We still had enough pace to stay ahead and make it very difficult for him to be close and try to do something, and compared to the others it didn’t look like there was no whole train behind us too, so I think we had some decent pace.”
