Formula 1: Vettel claims he 'compromised' his own race FREE now and never miss the top F1 stories again SUBSCRIBE Invalid email Sign up fornow and never miss the top F1 stories again When you subscribe we will use the information you provide to send you these newsletters. Sometimes they'll include recommendations for other related newsletters or services we offer. Our Privacy Notice explains more about how we use your data, and your rights. You can unsubscribe at any time. Ferrari were much slower than Mercedes throughout all of the practice and qualifying sessions in Barcelona. Vettel started third on the grid, behind a Mercedes front-row lockout. The only hope the German had of winning the race was by overtaking the pair of Silver Arrows on the first corner. And he tried to get the jump on pole-sitter Valtteri Bottas by going around the outside on Turn 1. But that allowed Hamilton on the inside to snatch the lead - a position he comfortably held for the duration of the race. “I wanted to brake latest – which I think I did,” Vettel told Autosport. “Obviously Valtteri was also quite late and I could not really get in, and I couldn’t see him so I knew he was there. “I saw that he was also braking quite late and if I just turned in, which I think I could have managed, then he would have had nowhere to go and I would go the other way. It didn’t work. Sebastian Vettel has admitted helping Lewis Hamilton win the Spanish Grand Prix Sebastian Vettel tried to go around the outside of Valtteri Bottas “In the end, obviously I did Lewis a favour because I distracted Valtteri. “It was clear that I couldn’t win the race at the first corner but I saw there was something to try. “I tried and it didn’t work, but I was hoping I could maybe mix things up a little bit for my sake and your sake!” Bottas finished the race behind Hamilton as Mercedes secured a fifth one-two of the season. Lewis Hamilton won the Spanish Grand Prix<doc-sep>The German saw rival Mercedes grab another front row lock-out at Barcelona, as he was left trailing pole position man Valtteri Bottas by 0.866 seconds as he took third place on the grid. But although aware that Mercedes had the edge in single-lap pace, he has suggested that a different approach his team has taken with its newly updated car may yet pay dividends in the race. "We tried a lot of stuff yesterday and again today, different directions and we ended up getting the best out of the car today which wasn't enough," he explained. "We are certainly not satisfied but I am very happy with the approach, with the chance that we took in terms of trying something daring: something that ultimately it will pay off, maybe not today at least, but hopefully it will help us in terms of pace for tomorrow. And hopefully it sets us off in the right direction for the next couple of weeks." Vettel said he was surprised at the scale of the Mercedes advantage, which he thinks has been exaggerated by the fact that his Ferrari is struggling in Barcelona's tight final sector. "Coming here we did not expect [the Mercedes gap] , but I think also we seem lose quite a big amount of time in the last sector," he said. "It is quite clear we seem to be faster down the straights, so probably we carry a little bit less wing than them. But in the last sector there are no straights and we are struggling a little bit to bring it together. "It is not a very long sector with quite some corners, and mostly lower speed, and that is where we seem to be losing the most time. There is definitely some homework, we know this track very well, everybody does, but with the conditions today we were just to able to match them." While the showing in Barcelona is in stark contrast to the pace Ferrari had in winter testing, Vettel thinks that nothing dramatic has changed – and his team just needs to understand how to get more pace from its 2019 challenger. "We need to dig deep," he said. "Now is not the first time we are losing out and not the second time nor the third time. It is a consistent trend that we seem to lose, in some places, independent of conditions, sunshine, clouds, tyres and compounds and so on. "There is a bit more for us to understand but if we had the solution surely it would be on the car already."<doc-sep>F1 pundits including Jenson Button and Martin Brundle have had their say on Ferrari's continued 2019 troubles after they were beaten by runaway championship leaders Mercedes and Max Verstappen's Red Bull in the Spanish GP. Finishing fourth and fifth at an event they had already qualified 0.9s adrift of pole means Ferrari have fallen nearly 100 points behind Mercedes after just five races. Sebastian Vettel, the team's expected title challenger, is fourth in the drivers' standings, 48 points adrift of Lewis Hamilton. Once more, the Scuderia's operations and decision making were called into question at Barcelona, with the team twice switching the order of Vettel and Charles Leclerc, in addition to experiencing pit-stop problems. Live stream the 2019 FIA Formula One World Championship on KAYO SPORTS. Every practice, qualifying & race live & anytime in HD. Get your 14 day free trial > Asked by David Croft in response to questions from fans on Twitter about what Mercedes' rivals needed to do to win again, Brundle replied: "Find some power, some downforce, some strategy, and beat a world-class team operating at its finest." Paul di Resta said: "Mercedes' dominance has absolutely been a step above any other grand prix." While Jenson Button added: "It's difficult to beat them, and Ferrari is the team that will beat them in the future, I feel, but they're finding it difficult to find that edge that Mercedes have." What went wrong for Ferrari in Spain? Ferrari's race had initially started promisingly enough with Vettel challenging the Mercedes pair for the lead positions into the first corner. But, on the outside of the three cars, Vettel locked up and flat-spotted his tyres, running wide in the process. The German was overtaken by Verstappen and quickly lost touch with the top three, before Ferrari instructed him to let Leclerc through on lap 12. Vettel pitted early on 19, six laps before Leclerc, and, on faster tyres, came back at his teammate. The pair ran within one second of each other for eight laps, with Vettel then allowed back through on lap 36. "The big thing for me listening to team radio was that the engineers were telling the drivers different things," explained Di Resta, who listened on in Race Control. "Sebastian's engineer was well aware it was a different strategy, Leclerc's engineer thought they were on the same strategy. That's where the confusion is, and where Mercedes are masterminding them at the moment. They're in a different league. "The pressure is off Mercedes at the same point, but Ferrari need to do a better job in that sense if they want to take the battle to them." ﻿READ MORE: FIVE THINGS WE LEARNED FROM THE SPANISH GRAND PRIX MERCEDES’ FIFTH STRAIGHT 1-2 AS RICCIARDO LEFT FRUSTRATED AGAIN RICCIARDO BRIGHT START FADES AFTER RENAULT ‘RESET’ Charles Leclerc was left stuck behind Sebastian Vettel at the start of the race despite being quicker. Source: Getty Images Yet, while their management of races has been consistently questioned, Button believes there is one fundamental problem for Ferrari. "We can all pick at the mistakes they have made this weekend - which, surprisingly, have been quite a lot. But with Vettel's move and lock up at Turn One, we would have all gone for that. It was the right thing to do," said Button. "The two pit-stop issues, and taking three or four laps to decide who should be in front at what time, these are all things that cost you race wins, of course. "But the underlying issue is the pace. You are going up against Mercedes, who have not made a mistake, and they both have very good pace throughout the race. You're not going to beat them unless you've improved in every area. "Every race they win and get a one-two, it really hurts Ferrari. They are such a passionate team and have such emotion there, and seeing those Silver Arrows stood up there must really hurt." Vettel on Ferrari strategy Both Ferrari drivers have struggled under poor strategy this season. Source: AFP "In the beginning, it was clear Charles was faster, and once he was putting more and more pressure, I was happy to let him go. Second stint, I wasn't aware we were on different strategies for a long time, but, once it was clear, I was let go and obviously a lot faster and tried to put pressure on Max. "But with the Safety Car in the end it didn't really matter." Leclerc on taking on the hard tyres at his first stop "I don't think it was a bad call, we wanted to go to the end of the race with them, but didn't make it work. We need to look into that and analyse." ﻿This article originally appeared of Sky Sports and was taken with permission.<doc-sep>Lewis Hamilton fumed at Sebastian Vettel FREE now and never miss the top F1 stories again SUBSCRIBE Invalid email Sign up fornow and never miss the top F1 stories again When you subscribe we will use the information you provide to send you these newsletters. Sometimes they'll include recommendations for other related newsletters or services we offer. Our Privacy Notice explains more about how we use your data, and your rights. You can unsubscribe at any time. Hamilton was heading out of the pit lane to put in the final lap of preparation ahead of the race. But he was caught behind Vettel and let his team know he was not happy. "Vettel's just been driving dangerously at the pit entry," reported Hamilton over the radio. "He was doing burnouts." Mercedes insisted they would speak to the F1 authorities over the move as Hamilton continued to rage. "We'll get onto them," Mercedes responded. And Hamilton added: “I nearly crashed into him.” The Brit starts the Spanish Grand Prix in second place after being thrashed by team-mate Valtteri Bottas in qualifying. Sebastian Vettel was accused of driving dangerously Bottas secured pole after recording a lap time six-tenth quicker than Hamilton. Ferrari’s Vettel will start in third, with team-mate Charles Leclerc closely behind. The Prancing Horse have brought a number of upgrades to Barcelona this weekend and chief Mattia Binotto is happy with how they are playing out. "It was certainly a disappointment yesterday. We were hoping for a better performance and it was not the case,” he said. Lewis Hamilton is hoping to win a sixth world title this year<doc-sep>
Sebastian Vettel believes Ferrari’s pace was a match for Max Verstappen’s Red Bull Honda in the Spanish Grand Prix, but that a podium got away after his unsuccessful attempt to take the lead at the start. Lewis Hamilton pulled even with polesitter Valtteri Bottas on the run to Turn 1, and Vettel moved to the left, making it three wide with the Mercedes pair as he held the outside line. An attempt to outbrake both into the first corner, though, saw Vettel lock up and nearly miss Turn 2, damaging his tires. The flat spots hampered him in the first part of the race, and he eventually finished fourth, behind Verstappen who slipped through as Vettel fought to recover. “It was a bit of a mixed bag,” Vettel explained after the race. “I had a flat spot after the first corner where I knew it would be my only chance to really try and do something against Mercedes. It wasn’t quite there, though, and then after that [the flat spot] compromised my own race, so probably that’s where we lost the podium. “To the end I think we had decent speed once we were in free air and past that first set of tires.” “I wouldn’t say it was going for a win,” Vettel continued, “but just trying to mix things up a bit. I think we had the same pace as Max, but obviously he benefitted in Turn 1 and then it was difficult to get [the position] back. “I wanted to brake latest, which I think I did. But Valtteri was also quite late so I couldn’t really get in, and I couldn’t see him. I just saw that he was also braking quite late. If I just turned in, which now I think I could have managed, then he has nowhere to go and I will go the other way. So it didn’t work. “In the end, I did Lewis a favor because I distracted Valtteri. It was clear that I could not win the race in the first corner, but I saw that there was something to try. I tried and it didn’t work, but I was hoping that I could mix things up a little bit for my sake and your sake.” Ferrari employed team orders on a number of occasions during the race, telling Vettel to let teammate Charles Leclerc past in the first stint before returning the favor in the second with the two drivers on different strategies. Both calls came after a number of laps of battling, but Vettel says the team took the right approach in timing its decisions. “I think we tried to work together. At the beginning, it wasn’t quite clear how slow I was going to be and how fast Charles was. In the second stint I wasn’t aware that we were on different strategies; once that was clear, I was obviously a lot faster at that point. “But in the end we had the safety car, so it doesn’t matter.”