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Vettel unhappy with fourth

ESPNF1 Staff
July 24, 2011

Sebastian Vettel jumped Felipe Massa in the pits on the last lap for fourth © Sutton Images

Sebastian Vettel said that fourth place in the German Grand Prix was "not satisfying" but that it was the maximum he could have achieved.

Vettel started third on the grid but lost out to Fernando Alonso in turn one before having a spin during the first stint which flat-spotted his tyres and dropped him back to Felipe Massa. Vettel recovered to finish fourth but was a full 48 seconds behind race winner Lewis Hamilton and he said that both McLaren and Ferrari had a quicker race pace than his Red Bull.

"Of course it's not satisfying," Vettel told the BBC. "But I think we have to accept today that other people were quicker than us. As I said surely I'm not happy, not satisfied, so I want to come back next time but for now I think they (McLaren and Ferrari) have been working very hard and improved their cars. We need to make sure that we come back and I didn't feel very good all weekend, never got to the pace probably that Mark had in the car and I struggled to keep up three or four laps after the warm up stage is over to keep up with the top two or three cars."

Despite his disappointment, Vettel did say that the race ended on a high when he managed to jump Felipe Massa in the pit stops on the final lap to seal fourth place.

"I felt good. Obviously I entered in to my pitbox first and when I got out obviously you can't wait to leave the box after the boys have changed the wheels and it was nice to see that the Ferrari was still stationary so it was down to them, they did a very good job in the end.

"We were pushing Felipe very hard all race trying to lead him in to a mistake, I think both of us were right at the limit, the cars were pretty nervous and generally I think fourth anyway was probably our maximum today, which is not satisfying. But we have to accept it and go from there, next week is the next race and it looks like McLaren and Ferrari are getting quicker and quicker. So we need to work harder on our car trying to improve it in order to be back on the podium and maybe soon on the top step again."

Credit: ESPN F1 (en.espnf1.com)