Sebastian Vettel claims he needed just one more lap to pass Valtteri Bottas for the lead of the Austrian Grand Prix, having found himself half a second adrift on the final lap of the 71-lap race.
The Ferrari driver struggled to keep up with Bottas during the opening stint, but once he fitted fresher tyres the gap between the two gradually decreased until a late charge put Vettel in the tail of the Mercedes with a handful of laps left.
The pair crossed the finish line 0.658 seconds apart, but Vettel was within four-tenths on the final lap but just a little too far to mount an overtake, but believes he would have been close enough if the race had 72 laps.
"How would you feel if you were just shy of half a second behind the winner?" Vettel said on the podium after the race. "Obviously I wanted to win but nevertheless this is a good result.
"It was very close. I was told he was in trouble, but I was pushing anyway," added Vettel. "I felt much happier in the second part of the race, the first part I was struggling a bit to feel the car. But as soon as we put the supersoft tyres on the car came alive.
"I had very good pace and was catching little by little so the last laps it was getting really close.
"I had [Sergio] Perez who cost me a little time with lapped cars but I think I needed one more lap as he [Bottas] was struggling to get up the hill."
When asked about Bottas' start, which the stewards investigated but took no action over, Vettel said: "I was pretty sure he jumped it, ask Daniel [Ricciardo] about it," he added, with Ricciardo also suspecting it was a jump start.
