Strategy right in the end for Vettel

Sebastian Vettel said a switch to a two-stop race seven laps from the end of the Canadian Grand Prix was the right call after a gamble on a one-stop programme failed to yield dividends.

Vettel, who started from pole but finished fourth, tried to stay out on degrading soft tyres, along with then race leader Fernando Alonso, after McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton had relinquished the lead to stop for a second set of soft tyres.

However, when Vettel’s and Alonso’s times began to fall away dramatically, Hamilton closed in and passed both. With The McLaren drawing away and the chasing pack closing in on Vettel’s third place, Red Bull Racing opted to pit the German. Alonso, though stayed out.

Vettel resumed in fifth and quickly began to make up lost ground on his new tyres. Alonso, now lapping four seconds slower than his rivals, was swamped by first one-stopping Romain Grosjean and then by Sergio Pérez, on a similar strategy.

Vettel soon closed down Alonso and took fourth on the penultimate tour and afterwards, hailed the team’s decision to bring him in seven laps from home.

“Lewis decided to go for the second stop and we tried then to get the place back by going on one stop, same as Ferrari,” he said. “But that turned out to be wrong call. We then decided in the end to come in again which I think was a good call, and a great call at the time – given what you could lose with seven laps to go etc.”

The champion admitted too that he had been surprised by how quickly his one-stop plans fell apart as the tyres faded in the closing stages.

“It was quite sudden,” he said. “When you think about how many laps we did on that set of Primes without any trouble, but then in the last three or four laps you could really feel the tyres starting to go off. Then rear tyres just didn’t deliver the traction any more and it was extremely difficult. You could see Fernando struggling at the end.”

Vettel had a scare in the closing laps, however. As he pushed to catch Alonso, the champion lost control in the final chicane and brushed the Wall of Champions.

“Obviously, I was in a rush and wanted to come back [into the race] as much as I could,” he said. “I hit the wall slightly, but fortunately at the right angle and just brushed it. It wasn’t a hard impact but I was a bit surprised myself when I realised that I had brushed it. I crashed there last year, so this year I said hi and next year I’ll try to avoid it!”

Despite starting first and ending fourth, Vettel labeled the weekend in Montreal a good one.

“Yes, we could have [done things differently], now it’s easy to say that,” he added, “but, all in all, it was a good weekend for us. We had a very smooth run up to qualifying, a very good qualifying session. Arguably, today in the race, we lost a little bit of that edge but yeah we were there or thereabouts. It wasn’t as if we were missing much.

“Overall an interesting race again,” he concluded. “Another winner. I think Lewis deserved to win today, no doubt. For us, I think we have to learn the lesson, take it on board and make sure we don’t do it again and do a step forward in Valencia.”

Mark Webber, too, drifted down the order in the race. After starting fourth he was beaten to the strategic punch by the one-stopping cars and finished the race in seventh position.

“I knew it was going to be a little bit mixed up but not that mixed up,” Webber said. “I got away well and then in the first 10-12 laps we had a lot of volume with the engine on the straight and off the chicanes. I didn’t know if something was rubbing – it was weird, I’ve never felt it before.

“That took a bit of my attention, but I hoped it wasn’t going to cause any bigger problems for the rest of the race. We were doing quite a few changes to clear it – software and stuff.

“Then I settled on the pace of the other guys but by that stage they had a nice little gap. And then we pitted and came out behind the one stops – that’s fair play – behind [Sergio] Perez and Kimi [Raikkonen]. After that you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t. If you push to try to pass you kill the tyres and if you wait, you end up waiting.”

“We were quick at times, but not quick enough through the whole race,” he concluded. “Strategy-wise: well, with great hindsight we could have finished a bit further up. I was ahead of Grosjean when I pitted. The lottery continues.”