Sebastian Vettel says Max Verstappen deserved to win the Austrian Grand Prix after making no mistakes.
Mercedes' decision not to pit Lewis Hamilton under the Virtual Safety Car period allowed Verstappen to take the lead. The Dutchman controlled the race from there on and fended off a charging Kimi Raikkonen in the closing laps to score Red Bull's first win at its home grand prix.
Vettel managed to recover from sixth on the grid -- three places lower than where he qualified due to his grid penalty for blocking Carlos Sainz in qualifying -- to finish third. Reflecting on the race, the four-time champion was impressed with Verstappen's performance given the difficulties many drivers faced with tyre blistering.
"We had great speed, the difference was made with the tires today, which worked well, the strategy worked well,'' Vettel said. "But I think Max won the race because he deserved to. He did very well, managing his tires to the end, he didn't have any mistakes by my understanding, I didn't see him going off, so that's a strong performance from him. I think Kimi did everything he could, he had one lock-up I believe where he lost a position to Daniel, but he recovered after that and I did my bit to come back.
"Obviously I was saving tires, pushing at the same time, you never know. You're a bit blind because the race is long and there was more than 50 laps to go on the same tires, so I tried to do all that and I think most of it I got more or less right but I think it could also have been a bit better today without the plus three from the start but that's what it was."
After reclaiming the lead of the drivers' championship, Vettel admits Ferrari is falling in back in terms of qualifying pace and says it needs to improve this area if it is to make the most of its impressive race pace.
"I was saving tires, trying to manage... but I think we did well to recover,'' Vettel added. "I'm a bit mixed to be honest. I think that was a race we could have won with the circumstances, we had really good pace. Arguably a match to Mercedes in the race, but we need to make sure that we keep pushing and improving because in qualifying we are falling back a little bit at the moment so there's plenty for us to do."