Sebastian Vettel was pleased to let Ferrari put the recent problems behind them by beating Valtteri Bottas to claim victory at the Brazilian Grand Prix, his first since August.
The German made the decisive move on the Mercedes into Turn 1 at the start and would produce a faultless performance to maintain a small but comfortable margin en route to his fifth win of the season.
Commenting on the key moment, Vettel admitted he was surprised by just how poor Bottas’ start was but was pleased to take advantage.
“Initially I had a very good getaway and then I had a bit of wheelspin and thought I’d missed my chance,” he claimed. “I think Valtteri was struggling even more off the line so I had a chance to squeeze down the inside, I think I surprised him a bit.
“It was crucial after that as we were pushing more. After the Safety Car, I was pushing to try and get a bit of a gap and control the race from there.”
The win comes as Ferrari had been doing some soul-searching in the wake of a stretch of races that had been hampered by reliability, allowing Lewis Hamilton to claim the championship, and the continued improvements by Red Bull, who have out-scored the Scuderia since the summer break.
“[I’m] really happy for all the guys in the team back home in Maranello,” he said. “It has been a tough couple of weeks for us so nice to get it today and have both cars up there.
“It has been a tough race I spoke with Valtteri and the pace was all more or less the same, no room for mistakes,” the 30-year-old added.
What also helped was Hamilton not being at the front of the grid after his crash in qualifying. Such was the Briton’s pace in his recovery, however, he was catching Vettel by over a second per lap on the alternate strategy but the four-time world champion was never concerned by the 32-year-old, who would finish fourth.
“Not really,” he said. “Obviously I saw him pitting just in front of me so he had to make up that pit stop but I think it’s not the first time this year that we’ve seen that the mirror strategy has some advantages.
“It’s not very attractive if you’re starting in the front but it can be very attractive when you’re out of position which he was. So you obviously have an advantage.
“I think the track ramped up in the end and the Supersoft was clearly the faster tyre but overall it’s fair to say that Lewis was very quick,” Vettel added. “I think for us, as I said yesterday, it was nice to see that we were that close in qualifying trim.”
