Maurizio Arrivabene felt Sebastian Vettel’s performance during the Austrian Grand Prix showed that Scuderia Ferrari are still on the pace this season, with the German finishing on the tail of Valtteri Bottas on Sunday.
Vettel started and finished second, losing time in the opening phase of the race on the Ultrasoft tyre before closing the gap down when both he and Bottas switched to the Supersoft tyre, but he ran out of laps to attack for the win.
Team Manager Arrivabene felt Kimi Raikkonen could have had a better race but for his first lap battle with Daniel Ricciardo that he came out second best in, which also meant he fell behind Romain Grosjean into fifth and lost ground to those in front while he tried to recover.
“It was a very close race, which, once again showed that Ferrari is on the pace,” said Arrivabene. “Sebastian was able to fight for the win right to the very last corner, having produced a great drive.
“It was a shame for Kimi, who already on the opening lap, ran wide at turn 3 while fighting with Ricciardo. If not for that, with the car he had today, he too could have had a good race.
“The next race at Silverstone is just a few days away and as usual, we will be working flat out to prepare for it.”
