Mercedes and Lewis are a bit faster, we are still catching up, says Vettel

David Bodapati June 10, 2019

943 1 minute read

By Abhishek Aggarwal

Montreal: In a tense battle that saw a penalty for Ferrari driver and multiple champion Sebastian Vettel, the Canadian GP went into the hands of Mercedes with Lewis Hamilton making good of the situation to come out trumps.

In the post-race FIA press conference, when asked if he had a different strategy in mind as he was leading by a few seconds Vettel said that Hamilton was controlling the pace.

Question: Sebastian, when the stewards came with the official verdict there were still 15 laps to go and I think you were two seconds ahead of Lewis. Did you think there was possibly some chance or something else to do to get three more seconds of advantage?

Vettel said: “Yes, at some point I was three seconds in front but I was pretty sure that he was controlling the pace. Obviously once that happened it felt like he reduced pressure because there was no point. Then at some point, it felt like maybe he doubted the decision and was putting pressure back on but also…”

Interrupting in between, Lewis Hamilton clarified that: “I wasn’t backing off because of that. You just started going really quick, and I was like, shoot, he’s going to pull five seconds so I was struggling with the tyres when you suddenly picked up pace and then I was like I’ve got to do everything to try and keep up.”

Then Vettel went on to talk about his good laps and how he lost it. “Yeah, so I was trying to get this five seconds but I had a sequence of good laps, maybe that was in hand with when Lewis was struggling but then I was struggling more towards the end, plus we had to save fuel also to make it so not the easiest race to manage but I think we managed to stay ahead which makes me very happy and proud. I think the credit really goes to the team, hard work and this track looked a bit more competitive for us so despite what happened today, we’re looking forward to try and improve our car. There’s still work to do. I think Mercedes and Lewis were a bit faster in the race we’re still catching up but I think it was a good race overall for us.”