Vasseur denies Ferrari was too fair in Mercedes P2 fight

Ferrari Team Principal Frederic Vasseur has denied that Ferrari was too fair with its attempts to take second place in the Constructors' Championship.

The Italian squad missed out on the runner-up spot by three points as Mercedes held onto the position behind Red Bull in the standings.

Charles Leclerc ended the race in second place for Ferrari while Mercedes' George Russell was third.

The duo crossed the line behind Red Bull's Sergio Perez who was carrying a five-second time penalty for contact with Lando Norris earlier in the race.

Leclerc allowed Perez through for track position to give him a chance to build a five-second gap over Russell, which would've been enough for Ferrari to steal second place.

Leclerc also had the option to drop back further and impede Russell to further bolster the gap to Perez.

Vasseur

Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff commended Leclerc for not deploying such tactics in an effort to gain an advantage in the standings.

When asked if Ferrari was too fair in the battle, Vasseur told media including RacingNews365: “I don’t think so.

“You could imagine that [we could] block Russell but then you have also to ensure that Perez is in between you and Russell.

“If you want to block Russell, it's a matter of hundreds of seconds.

“I'm not a big fan of this and we did our best in a fair way when we let Perez go to give him the DRS to help as much as possible.”