Vettel: Tires changed the game at Barcelona

Sebastian Vettel takes fourth place at the end of the Spanish Grand Prix. Although he missed the podium for the second time in five races (after his fourth place in Shanghai), the three-time world champion remained satisfied with his performance even if he started from third place on the grid. The pilot Red Bull had to give in to Fernando Alonso, Kimi Räikkönen et Felipe Massa in the pit stop game. With fifth position taken by Mark Webber, the Milton Keynes cars were behind on the Catalunya circuit where tire management was decisive.

The Championship leader does not hesitate to criticize the excessive wear of the new hard tires from Pirelli which should nevertheless offer greater resistance compared to the previous version. “I still finished fourth and I scored good points”, comments the three-time world champion who still has a four-point lead over his direct rival Kimi Räikkönen. “It is certain that we wanted more, but we did not have the tires to fight with the drivers in front of us. The start of the race went well, but we stayed on a three-stop strategy for too long before admitting we couldn't follow it. You have to do a little more with the tires Our car was fast enough to catch up with our rivals, but the situation changes over the distance of a race. »

Discover the analysis of the Spanish Grand Prix carried out by our special correspondents in the next issue of AUTOhebdo, available from Tuesday in digital version on all platforms, and the next day on newsstands.