Sebastian Vettel, so close to the podium in Shanghai

Sebastian Vettel did not go far from the podium during the Chinese Grand Prix. Fourth at the finish of the race, the three-time reigning world champion finished the day's event at a fantastic pace by putting on Soft tires for the very last laps. “After the last stop, the team told me that there was a pretty big gap with the cars in front of me, but we said to ourselves that we had to go anyway”. With four loops of the Shanghai circuit remaining, the German regained one second per sector and literally pounced on his opponents. But that would be too fair. “When I arrived on the long straight and saw Lewis (Hamilton, Editor's note) at the other end turning in the hairpin, I thought "well, it's a little too far", but obviously we had more speed with the fresh tires ». And Tender, to boot.

Finally, the pilot Red Bull crosses the finish line fourth, almost in the exhausts of his counterpart at Mercedess. “It was a bit disappointing to lose by such a small margin, a few more turns and we could have tried something,” believes the winner of the Malaysian Grand Prix. “However, our strategy seemed correct today. We knew it would be difficult and getting clean laps was crucial, but we didn't get any in the first stint », continues the driver, referring to the laps spent behind the Sauber of the surprising Nico Hulkenberg. “I was faster than Nico but if you follow another car too closely, you put too much strain on the front tires and so it was difficult to find the right compromise”, details Sebastian Vettel. “Overall, we can be happy,” he concluded.