Vettel: Santa Claus wasn’t there to tell me when to dive into the pits

For a large portion of the British Grand Prix Sebastian Vettel looked nowhere near finishing on the podium, but fate conspired to hand him an opportunity he relishes, namely wet and slippery conditions late on in the race. He and Ferrari seized the 'gift' and scored a memorable, and fortuitous, third place at Silverstone. He spoke afterwards.

Do you think the rain made a big difference in the end of grab third place?
Sebastian Vettel: Yes, without the rain we would not be on the podium. I think we kept our head down and were patient enough to wait until the rain properly started to pour down. In the end, that’s England for you – a couple of minutes later you have sunshine, so obviously it helped us today, we did the right choice, we came in on the perfect lap and the team did a great job on the radio as well. So thank you very much and thanks to everyone, it’s a great atmosphere today.

It’s fair to say it wasn’t looking too rosy up until the point at which it rained. You did the same timing as Lewis. Did you feel the same way as Lewis? Was it something that you motivated yourself? Were you slightly surprised by what was going on around you with the other cars? Did you think it was your birthday when you realised where you were?
SV: I don’t know. I had a bad start but then we obviously, more or less, came back to fifth and sixth – so where we started – but obviously the gap was too big to the cars in front. Then there was some rain around six-seven – so around Luffield. And, yeah, it was only there so it was quicker to stay out on dries. But then I noted… it’s a tough call to make. If it rains, yes, some cars are already pitting, you obviously think about it but if the majority of the circuit is dry, there’s no point. Then I came out of Chapel and down the Hangar straight, noticed a lot more rain. I was trying to look at the clouds, all the laps before and though, ‘well, that’s the lap to go’. Because it was significantly more intense, the rain. It wasn’t just drizzle, it was proper rain and I decided to box. Once I was in the box I was told that Lewis decided to – the leader – decided to pit as well so I thought, yeah, should have been a good call. And then it was a surprise because I had Kvyat behind me when I boxed, and I came out behind him – like I saw him when I came out of the box. I don’t know what happened to him in between. But I guess at that point already the track was quite poor.