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Vettel doesn't believe slow pit stop cost him Hungarian GP

13:13, 30 Jul 2018

byJake Williams-Smith

Sebastian Vettel does not believe that his slow pit stop during the Hungarian Grand Prix cost him a chance at victory. The German pitted to switch to the ultrasoft tyres in an attempt to chase down leader Lewis Hamilton, but a slow stop left him stuck behind Valtteri Bottas instead.

Speaking after the race, Vettel reflected on what had happened during the grand prix and said he felt that the traffic and not the slow pit stop was the cause of his pain during the intense fight with Mercedes.

“We were faster on an older tyre than Valtteri and pulled a gap. Then I think it’s a bit difficult to foresee the traffic and – knowing how well you go through traffic or not – and in that case I lost quite a lot.”

A stubborn Carlos Sainz had stayed in front of Vettel for over half a lap as the Ferrari man approached to lap him, only getting out of the way after an apparent nine blue flag signs, although nothing was ever brought to the race stewards about the incident.

“I think without that it would have been a much more relaxed last part of the race. Probably hunting down Lewis, but with the gap that he had, I think it would have been difficult to catch," Vettel added.

“And then it’s a completely different story, especially around here to overtake. So I think we could have done the catching bit but not really the overtake, so, in the end it doesn’t change much to the final result.”

Frustratingly for Vettel it had looked like a Ferrari weekend with Mercedes struggling in practice due their overheating of the rear tyres. With Hamilton extending his championship lead as Formula One heads off for the summer break, the Scuderia are in desperate need of race victories to overhaul the momentum the reigning champion is starting to build.