Tyre issues caused Ferrari to stop Vettel again

Sebastian Vettel has revealed that Ferrari was struggling with its tyres throughout the Spanish Grand Prix, which caused them to pit for a second time. Vettel made his first stop of the race on lap 17, ditching the softs and fitting on the medium compound.

However, a virtual safety car was deployed after Esteban Ocon pulled to the side of the circuit with an engine issue. Ferrari called Vettel into the pits, giving up track position to Valtteri Bottas. But a slow stop also meant that the Ferrari dropped behind Max Verstappen.

Vettel failed to get past the Red Bull driver, who was running with a damaged front wing. Despite claims that Ferrari threw away points through a botched strategy, Vettel says that the Maranello squad simply had no choice but to pit again.

"For us it was not an option to stay out," he said. "We were going through the tyres quicker than the others today. It looks different and it looks wrong, but from the inside I think it was the right thing to do.

"Overall we were a little bit quicker (than Verstappen) but as the laps went on, we just didn't have enough pace. He was doing more or less the same [lap times]. We were just not quick enough and even at the end I was not in a healthy shape with the tyres even though mine were the freshest.

"It's hard to say how it would have been without the [compound] change. I think it probably impacted more on us than the others. Overall it has been a decent weekend, we just need to understand for tyres what to do. I think we have the same ones for Paul Ricard and Silverstone so we need to have a look."

Fergal Walsh