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Vettel pledges to learn from China

Championship leader Sebastian Vettel says Red Bull will learn from its defeat in the Chinese Grand Prix, having admitted that two stops turned out to be the wrong strategy at Shanghai

Vettel led into the closing stages, but lost the win to Lewis Hamilton as the McLaren - which was three-stopping - caught and passed him on fresher tyres.

"We probably tried too hard staying on two stops," said Vettel. "The middle stint should have been longer, but then you find yourself on the hard tyre and I saw Lewis coming closer and closer. There was no point [fighting too hard], I tried to defend as much as I could without losing too much time.

"We made a couple of mistakes and we had some problems, but still we finished second so I am very happy for that. Congratulations to Lewis and McLaren - it shows that one race when you try something a bit different, you do mistakes. It is natural and there is someone else to beat you.

"We learned a lot today. I am the only one on two stops here [on the podium] so surely something to look into tonight."

Vettel had started from pole again, but was passed off the line by both McLarens.

"I think the start was not the best we had this year, on top of that it seems for some reason the left hand side is worse than here," he said. "It wasn't a 100 per cent good start so I lost position."

His first stop was then slowed slightly by Jenson Button mistakenly pulling into Red Bull's pit area just ahead of Vettel.

"It was quite a surprise - Jenson in front of me went into my garage," Vettel recalled. "We had something similar with STR, I don't know what attracts people to stop in our garage... The guys kept their heads cool, we came out in the lead."

Vettel added that his race had also been affected by some small problems, including radio difficulties and further KERS issues.

"[The radio] didn't make it easier, usually you exchange info, what the tyres are, other guys..." he said. "I asked a lot of questions so I didn't get any answer. We had a problem with communication, we had a problem with KERS in the race, it wasn't a trouble-free race."

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