Vettel: Ferrari failed in France

Sebastian Vettel admits that Ferrari failed in achieving their main objective for the French Grand Prix - to bridge the gap in the championship race to runaway leaders, Mercedes, and put themselves in a better position heading into the next race in Austria.

After a disappointing qualifying session in which he only finished as seventh-fastest, Vettel was never going to compete for the flag at the Circuit Paul Ricard, but the team wanted to, at least, use the results of he and Charles Leclerc to cut Mercedes’ lead.

It didn’t happen, as the Silver Arrows cruised to yet another one-two finish.

“It's pretty straightforward - we are fast in the straights, not-so-fast on the corners,” Vettel admitted.

“So, depending on the track layout, some weekends are good for us, some weekends are worse.

“This weekend, the objective was to close the gap a significant amount [to Mercedes] which we didn't do. So, in that regard, we failed, but that doesn't mean we're giving up.

“Hopefully, the track layout in Austria comes a little bit our way.”

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The German did manage to secure the fastest lap on the day, gaining him an extra point in the championship standings, but it wasn’t totally routine despite the race effectively being over when he went quickest.

“It was quite tight, we seemed to have a problem with discharging the battery in the final lap, so it was a bit strange. Otherwise, it should have been a bit more straightforward,” he added.

Vettel ended up finishing in fifth place, while team-mate Leclerc took the last podium spot after finishing third.

After the action in France, Mercedes extended their lead over Ferrari to 140 points in the constructors’ championship standings.

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