The German now leads Mercedes rival Lewis Hamilton by 25 points in the standings as he took the chequered flag in a slow-burning Monaco Grand Prix.
Hamilton remarked that "Vettel is Ferrari's number one" who could manage to finish 7th after a hard race which saw him start at 13th from the grid.
Vettel won in Monaco, beating his team-mate Kimi Raikkonen into second place, although Ferrari's pit strategy was interpreted as deliberately favouring the German.
"It's clear to me that Ferrari have chosen their No. 1 driver so they will be pushing everything to make sure Sebastian will maximize all of his weekends", Hamilton said. "It is very hard for the leading auto to get jumped unless the team decide to favour the other vehicle", Autosport.com quoted Hamilton as saying.
Hamilton, who struggled with tyre temperatures throughout the Monaco weekend, says Mercedes need to work hard to catch up and make their W08 more consistent.
"So we'll regroup, get the vehicle back to where we know it's comfortable for the next races, try to understand the ultra-soft tyre a bit better and come back stronger". "I'll go to the factory this week".
"We've got a real fight on our hands, but there are still 14 races to go".
The Briton was able to work his way up to seventh, but four-time world champion Vettel is now a full race victory ahead after he successfully overcut Raikkonen in the pit-stop phase.
As the safety vehicle emerged, Button got as far as the chicane before suspension damage forced him to halt his one-race comeback.
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He also kicked up a hornet's nest of questions about the legal and ethical implications of the move. He knew he was preparing something that was evidentiary in nature".
"There are so many different things we need to look into, to try and understand why one auto can make the tyres work and the other cannot".
Raikkonen kept his lead at the start and the two raced ahead of the pack with Raikkonen pitting first on lap 34, which didn't seem entirely logical, and he came out behind slower cars.
Hamilton subsequently suggested that Ferrari's tactics provided the most obvious evidence yet that Vettel is being given preferential treatment by the Italian constructor this season.
He bristled when asked about whether or not he was asked to clear the way for Vettel after his performance Saturday.
"I still believe we can win this thing".
Behind the top three, Bottas managed to salvage fourth and some points for Mercedes, fending off the Red Bull of Verstappen who took fifth, with the Toro Rosso of Sainz in sixth.
"I'm a driver, I can do whatever I want, I can stop the auto if I want to, but we work as a team and if you don't believe in how they work then it's very complicated", he said.
NEXT UP The drivers have a week off before heading to Montreal, where they will have more room for manoeuvre at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in the Canadian Grand Prix. We've just finished the race and who knows?
It was Ferrari's first one-two finish since 2010 and chairman Sergio Marchionne was quick to hail "a race which will be part of our history... a really exciting race where we saw the real scuderia (team)".
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