Sebastian Vettel saw his championship lead cut from twenty points to just one point after a tricky afternoon around Silverstone, with the Scuderia Ferrari driver finishing down in seventh.
Vettel had a difficult start and a difficult end to the British Grand Prix, with overhearing brakes on the grid meaning his first few laps were tricky, and it also meant Max Verstappen was able to get ahead of the German on the first lap.
The subsequent battle with the Red Bull Racing driver was one of the highlights of the race, but for Vettel, who found himself pushed off the track at Vale after he had put Verstappen off the track at Stowe, but Vettel was not judging who was to blame in either incident.
Ultimately, when on course for fourth position on the penultimate lap, Vettel suffered a left front tyre failure heading down the Wellington Straight, which saw him forced to pit, which relegated him down to seventh behind both Red Bull’s and Nico Hülkenberg.
“It was a difficult race,” revealed Vettel. “The brakes got fire on the grid and I think this is the reason why I had no grip at the start: they were too hot.
“During the last laps, after the problem with the front left tyre, I tried to get the car back and recover some points. It was difficult today because I was stuck at the beginning behind Max, but I am not the one to judge what happened between him and me.
“After that I think the pace was good, considering the fact that I was on the Soft tyres. Valtteri [Bottas] was on other compound, the Supersofts, so it was clear that he would have been strong.
“Today was not a great day, but we’ll see what happens in Hungary, on a different track.”