10 May 2015 – Sebastian Vettel reckons traffic cost him a second-place finish in the Spanish Grand Prix, although he admits that Lewis Hamilton deserved the position.
Ferrari driver Vettel jumped Mercedes rival Hamilton at the start of the race, but dropped back to third as Hamilton adopted an alternate strategy.
Vettel reckons he had a genuine shot of splitting Hamilton and race winner Nico Rosberg, however, had it not been for traffic before his final stop.
"To be honest, I thought it would be tricky to keep him [Hamilton] behind," said Vettel.
"Obviously we were lucky with the first pit-stop, as we stayed ahead and reacted well.
"Then they decided to pit very early and go for a three-stop. We stayed out, which was the best option, but unfortunately we had traffic and it cost us 2-3 seconds, which was enough to lose the position.
"But you have to be fair and say that they deserved to finish in front of us today."
While Mercedes' advantage appeared to be greater in Barcelona than at previous races, Vettel remains confident that Ferrari is still making steps forward.
"If you look at the gap in the race it was the biggest so far so you might think it's not good, but we are confident we are going in the right direction," he said.
"We have to understand and find the reasons, either this track didn't suit us or conditions suited Mercedes – it's likely to be one of the two as we've been closer in recent races.