Sebastian Vettel thanked the English weather for his British Grand Prix podium after a late rain shower and a perfectly-timed pit stop elevated him to an unlikely third position at Silverstone.
The early stages of the race were run in the dry and were about the battle between Mercedes and Williams out in front, with Vettel as low as tenth at one stage after a messy start. Two separate rain showers in the second stint changed everything, however, and Vettel followed Lewis Hamilton into the pits on lap 43 - which turned out to be the perfect moment to take on intermediates as it coincided with the rain intensifying.
"Without the rain we would not be on the podium so we kept our head down and were patient enough to wait until the rain properly started to pour down," Vettel said. "In the end, that's England for you - a couple of minutes later you have sunshine! Obviously it helped us today, we did the right choice, came in on the perfect lap and the team did a great job on the radio as well."
While Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen came in for intermediates before any other drivers, Vettel waited patiently for the conditions to worsen. The German explained his thought process on the laps before his all-important pit stop on lap 43, which saw him leapfrog Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas despite being off the pace of Williams in the dry portion of the race.
"I don't know, I had a bad start but then we always came back to fifth and sixth from where we started, but obviously the gap was too big from the cars in front. But then there was some rain around six/seven, so about round Luffleld, but it was only there so it was quicker to stay out on drys. But it's a tough call to make because if it rains, yes you know 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 Hanger Straight noticed a lot more rain, I was trying to look at the clouds all the laps before. I thought that's the lap to go because it was significantly more intense the rain so it wasn't just a drizzle, it was proper rain, and then I decided to box. Once I was inside the box I was told Lewis - the leader - decided to pit as well so I thought it should have been a good call."