Sebastian Vettel admits he had to “freestyle” with fuel-saving to🐻 ensure he made it to the finish of Formula 1’s Canadian Grand Prix.

Vettel crossed the line in first pl🎉ace but was demoted to second-place behind Lewis Hamilton after being hit with a controversial time penalty for rejoining the track in an unsafe manner following a mistake at Turn 3.

The German came under increasing pr♓essure from Hamilton in the second half of the race prior to his mistake and revealed Ferrari had concerns over its fuel usage in the closing stages.

“Some laps I was saving fuel, some laps I wasn’t because I had to adjust given th꧑e gap 🐠I had,” Vettel explained.

“We dꦆid so many laps and I don’t remember the lap before or the lap before that, but certainly I had to react on the gap I had.

“So, when Lewis was closer I didn’t do fuel-saving and𝄹 when he was a bit further away and I had a bit of a cushion I was trying to sa꧒ve as much as I can.

“I pretty much had to freestyle in terms of♕ fuel-saving to make sure I finished the race with some fuel left.

“It may be that the lap before I was lifting off because he wasn’t as close, I didn’t tr𓂃y to re-invent Turn 3 after 50 laps.”

The FIA announced on Thursday that Ferrari wi🎃ll present its case to the Montreal stewards for why it believes the inciꦺdent should be looked at again on Friday ahead of this weekend’s French Grand Prix at Paul Ricard.

Despite suggestions that Mercedes could argue it would have asked Hamilton to pass Vettel had the Ferrari driver not been penalised, Vettel said he n🌠ever got the impression the reigning world champion was “easi🐭ng off” at any point.

“Certainly it changed the race from that point onwardsඣ ꦚbecause I don’t know how much Lewis was backing off or not but the fight was on for all the race,” he insisted.

“I thoug🐻ht it was quite exciting, at least inside the car but also outside the 🥂car, after that probably less so.”