Sebastian Vettel suspects Lewis Hamilton lost interest in the Australian Grand Prix and said that was the only reason he was able to close on the Mercedes driver.

Hamilton finished 20 seconds behind team mate Valtteri Bottas , who passed him at the start and went on to win the race.

Vettel took the chequered flag the race over half a minute behind Hamilton after being overtaken by Max Verstappen. At one stage he was able to get closer to Hamilton, but Vettel believes that was more down to Hamilton’s mood than the Ferrari’s pace.

“I don’t know what Lewis was doing,” said Vettel after the race. “I think he was probably bored and not happy because he lost the start.

“I think it’s not the first race where he’s doing something just to go round, he was just playing at that point,” he added.

During his second stint Hamilton told his team he had concerns about how well his tyres would last. Vettel said these comments were reported to him by Ferrari.

“I was told also on the radio that he’s complaining about his tyres but I think he made it quite safely to the end,” said Vettel. “Maybe he wasn’t too happy driving from that point onwards.”

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2019 F1 season