Vettel upset by Ferrari's aggressive strategy

Sebastian Vettel has admitted his displeasure with Ferrari's strategy at the Singapore Grand Prix. The German was forced to settle for third place, despite overtaking Red Bull's Max Verstappen on the opening lap of the race.

Vettel was the first of the top drivers to come into the pitlane, getting rid of his hyper softs and attaching the ultra softs. However, he rejoined the circuit behind the Force India of Sergio Perez and lost time to both Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen.

Hamilton pitted one lap after Vettel and managed to stay ahead, but Verstappen stayed out three laps longer and set strong lap times in clean air. Along with being held up by the Force India, Vettel lost track time and found himself behind Verstappen when the Dutchman made his pit stop.

"We tried to be aggressive in the beginning and obviously it didn't work out. With the way we raced today we didn't have a chance. I said before the weekend we could only beat ourselves and I think today we didn't get everything out of our package."

Vettel now sits 40 points behind Hamilton in the standings, and has called on Ferrari to find out why it didn't have the pace throughout the weekend: "It was pretty obvious what we tried to do and it didn't work. It was clear we were not fast enough in the race, we need to understand why."

But Vettel has not lost any faith in the Maranello outfit despite it being the second time in two rounds that he has questioned the strategy of the team: "The decisions we took in the race, to try and be aggressive, were to try and win the race and when it works it's great," Vettel said.

"But overall we had a very strong package, both Kimi and myself looked very competitive throughout practice, but in the end the race result we finished third and fifth. Like yesterday, not where the speed of our car belongs. That's what I mean when I said we didn't get everything out of ourselves."

Fergal Walsh