Failures caught Ferrari by surprise - Vettel

Sebastian Vettel says there was no warning for the tire failures suffered by both himself and teammate Kimi Raikkonen late on in the British Grand Prix.

Running fourth on the road, Vettel was promoted to third when Raikkonen – who had been second – suffered a left-front puncture and was forced to pit with two laps to go. Just a few corners later, Vettel suffered the same problem and had to limp back to the pits, dropping to seventh place on the final lap.

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"Hindsight is great, it's easy, but at the time it felt OK," Vettel said of the problem. "Kimi I think had a similar issue, and his tires were at least five, six laps fresher so I think it caught us both by surprise."

Despite seeing his championship lead all but wiped out as Lewis Hamilton won to cut the gap to one point, Vettel insists it was just a case of small issues adding up to a poor final result.

Asked if the weekend was a disaster, the German replied: "Well, I think it could've been a little bit better for sure. Disaster? I don't think so.

"I think we had a good car, especially in the corners. The balance was all right. In the race obviously, brakes caught fire at the start, which compromised the start and from there it was a difficult race.

"Didn't get past Max [Verstappen], we did it with the pit stop. Then we were like P3, P4, it was clear that Valtteri [Bottas] would come because he benefitted at the beginning because I was stuck, but overall small things here and there that led into a busy afternoon."

Although Vettel complained about Verstappen's defending during a fight in the first stint, the championship leader played down his radio messages after the race.

"It doesn't help me at the time, but I'm sure it looked good but yeah [laughs] I wanted to make it past him; I didn't. So it was quite tricky – I tried everything."