When the racing resumed, Hamilton remained top, but Vettel now found himself down in fifth, behind the Red Bulls and behind team-mate, Kimi Raikkonen.
The same issue was discussed at the driver briefing at last year's U.S. Grand Prix after Daniel Ricciardo positioned his vehicle in a similar way on the Japanese Grand Prix grid.
The Scuderia Ferrari driver ended up just 6.250 seconds behind race victor Lewis Hamilton, but did so after running fifth in the laps after the safety auto, when he was caught up by its timing having already stopped for slick tyres during the virtual safety vehicle a few laps earlier.
This led to the safety vehicle coming out on track to ruin Vettel's smart strategic move.
Verstappen, meanwhile, made clear that Red Bull isn't that far behind. I think the auto was behaving pretty nicely on fresh tyres, but the fronts just went away after two laps. "We couldn't prove that, but next time we will".
"Later when Sebastian got behind and we had a race on our hands, but obviously we had that gap".
"Those last 20 laps or so, we were really exchanging times and I tried to match it".
Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton (44) of Great Britain. We need to look.
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"I think the only summary we can come up with is that [we won]".
The Finn opened up on his struggle with taking certain corners throughout the race after crossing the finish line. So when I manage to get ahead it only compliments you, and vice-versa.
Hamilton heaped praise on Vettel, the German four-time world champion, who was unlucky to have pitted just before a safety vehicle and emerged stuck in traffic. They were quite strong in the back straight. I expect it to ping-pong through the season. I was very happy with that and then after that I had a really good race. "I couldn't go early on the power".
"It's always painful when you don't have a good result", explained Raikkonen. "Ferrari have done a fantastic job - it's very, very close", Hamilton added, referring to the difference in performance between the sport's top two teams.
Hamilton was hailed by Mercedes boss Toto Wolff after win, who said: "Lewis, on his day, is in a different league".
After a chaotic start to the race at the Shanghai International Circuit, the 32-year-old Mercedes AMG Petronas star from Hertfordshire led from lights to flag to claim his first F1 victory of the 2017 season.
The Brit started from pole position and led from beginning to end to capture the 54th race title of his career and his first of the new Formula One season. "And Ferrari are at their best in years", Hamilton said. We are at our best as a team too, and I feel like I'm at my best.
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