“His Tyres were Getting Worse” – Sebastian Vettel

Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel was understandably upset with Valtteri Bottas. In the closing stages of the race, the Mercedes driver collided with the German. Subsequently, he collided with Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo.

Vettel failed to implement a smart tyre strategy and came out from his last pitstop in third place. The four-time world champion was stuck behind Bottas for a long time with Raikkonen closing in. With five laps remaining it was too late to catch race leader Hamilton. Vettel dived and Bottas defended into Turn 2, with both colliding.

Sebastian Vettel was relieved to escape unscathed after Bottas made contact.

“It was a tough race, obviously we were out of the position with the speed we had, I had a good start, was in third, we did well then it was a bit tricky knowing when to come out, had an issue with the pit stop and came out behind Valtteri,” he said.

Vettel noticed that Bottas’ tyres were getting worse and he was ripe for the picking. While he wouldn’t have been pleased with P2, it was the best Ferrari could have done.

In the meantime, Hamilton was delighted to chalk up this victory ahead of the summer break.

Mercedes chief Toto Wolff was surprised by the result as he expected to lose points to Ferrari. He downplayed the incident between Bottas and Vettel in the closing stages.

However, he confessed that while he was glad for Lewis, he felt for Valtteri. Wolff classified the contact as a racing incident between the Ferrari and Mercedes. He said that there have been several incidents like this throughout the season. This was simply a case of the two racing each other hard. Valtteri tried to defend with everything he had left in the bag and the tyres were on their last legs.