Vettel holds up hands over costly spin

Sebastian Vettel admits that his own mistake saw him lose out on a strong result for Ferrari at the Bahrain Grand Prix.

While the German was battling Lewis Hamilton for second place, he spun on the exit of Turn 4 as he attempted to maximise the speed while accelerating.

However, Vettel found himself facing the wrong way and in doing so, destroyed the tyres which resulted in a shattered front wing that broke due to the heavy vibrations that were being sent through the car.

The spin and following pit stop sent Vettel down to fifth place, where he eventually crossed the line. 

"Obviously it was very close, I tried to get back on the inside just like the lap before, but Turn 4 was one of the trickiest corners [today]," Vettel said.

"It was my mistake, I spun and I damaged the tyres so much that I had vibrations that led on to the failure of the front wing."

Vettel held the lead of the race briefly, as he jumped teammate Charles Leclerc off the line. However, Leclerc soon came back at him and regained first place, with Vettel stating that he knew very quickly that he would be in for a tough Grand Prix.  

"It was very difficult, I realised after half a lap that it would be difficult. The car was very difficult to drive, but I think Charles struggled less. He was able to follow and pass me, it was quite tricky.

"In the second stint, we calmed down with the medium tyres but overall not the pace we should have had today."

Vettel says that Leclerc losing out on the race win due to engine problems was "unlucky", admitting that his teammate deserved the race win after an impressive display. 

"It wasn't the race we wanted. We started first and second and didn't finish there. It's a disappointing evening, I don't know what happened to Charles. I think he got very unlcuky because it was his race so can't be happy with the result."