Vettel: In the position they were in it was a no-brainer

Vettel finished third, dropping 50 points behind in the championship race with five rounds remaining, as Mercedes fiddled with the race outcome by instructing Bottas to pull over and allow Hamilton by to maximise the damage.

In defeat, the Ferrari driver was full of praise for his rivals, “Well done to both of them, they played very well together as a team.”

Then Vettel took a swipe at critics of the manner in which Hamilton 'won' the race, “In their defence, all the questions… obviously, I know that you guys [media] love controversy and therefore ask some naughty questions to them as individuals."

“But I think in the position they were in it was a no-brainer what they did today so maybe not all the questions are justified. For us, obviously, we tried our maximum. I think there was a slim chance to finish ahead of Lewis."

“I went through the racing bit this afternoon, so we have to be third and settle with that for today,” added Vettel.

At one point amid the pitstops, the Ferrari emerged in second pace sandwiched between race leader Bottas and Hamilton in third, the overcut had worked for the Reds, but those absent horses cost them dear.

The Briton stalked the German for a couple of laps, Vettel went ultra-defensive when the clearly faster silver car made the first move, Hamilton complained but was soon past and up the road with Vettel powerless to do anything but watch the Merc get smaller and smaller.

Of the incident, Vettel explained, “I had a bit of a wobble into Turn 13, locked up and Lewis was quite close so he got DRS down the straight. I saw him coming, it was very difficult to see with the mirrors but I thought I moved before the braking, so I wanted to make sure I covered the inside."

“Then, obviously I had a compromised run out of the second corner, defending my position. Then it was very difficult to see where he was. I couldn’t see him for a very very long time and then just saw his tyres and I knew that he was then somewhere there."

“I didn’t want to be a complete arse by pushing him into the dirt and potentially into the wall so I wasn’t quite sure where he was and then at some point I had to give in. I thought I could maybe get it back out of Turn 4 but I had to give him the entrance otherwise, you know, at some stage it just becomes silly."

“Obviously I wasn’t happy when I lost the position but I think we did what we could today," concluded Vettel who departs Sochi Autodrom 50-points adrift of Hamilton in the championship with only five rounds remaining.