- US GP - Race
Vettel confused by race of two halves
Sebastian Vettel says he was confused by a lack of pace in the first half of United States Grand Prix as he fought back from a pit lane start to finish seventh in Austin.
A power unit change enforced Vettel's penalty but gave the four-time world champion the chance to work solely on his race set-up in practice. But the encouraging pace found in those sessions failed to materialise early in the race, with an irritated Vettel telling Red Bull he was confused by why he was two seconds slower than he had been during his long runs in practice.
A late switch to the soft tyre allowed Vettel to storm through a train of cars for seventh, exactly the position he said he would be happy with on Saturday, and he feels satisfied with the end result given his tough start.
"I think results-wise it's OK," Vettel said. "In the end, I think especially P5 was out of reach. P6 with Fernando, I don't know if he had a problem at the end or was just going slow but, all in all, result-wise it was OK. The first half of the race was very difficult; we were not quick at all, struggling to match what we did in practice. In the second half the situation seemed to turn around a bit and we were in a better place."
An early safety car saw Vettel pit twice in an optimistic strategy call which involved stretching out the final stint, which the world champion was ultimately unable to do. But Vettel says Red Bull did exactly what it had planned in the event of an early safety car.
"Obviously you always go quicker on the softs but first of all, with the safety car, it was always the plan to do what we did. We had nothing to lose. And then we tried to complete the race in two halves - didn't work, and that's why we had to come in and pit for the soft tyres again which in the end was about the same."
Vettel had a fresh power unit at his disposal in the race but says his difficulty to pass cars early on was nothing to do with the engine.
"It should be the best [engine] we ever had. On the straights were were fine, obviously we were running very, very little wing. It was difficult to pass but I think for that it worked, if you look at global pace, for sure more downforce would have been quicker but we knew that."
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