Sebastian Vettel played down any disappointment at being comprehensively beaten by team-mate Mark Webber for the second straight race, insisting he was more than satisfied with Red Bull’s second 1-2 finish of the season.

Pole-sitter Webber controlled the race from the front, was able to increase his lead seemingly at will, and would have won by a comfortable margin but for four safety car periods that concertinaed the field.

Vettel admitted he had no answer for Webber’s pace, and said his main focus was on defending second place from Renault’s Robert Kubica rather than catching his team-mate.

“Especially in the beginning I wasn’t able to keep up with Mark,” he said.

“Obviously it was a big difference.

“Later on, when I finally felt the grip, I wasn’t too far off, but by then he was too far down the road.

“So there was no real point to make an effort to try to catch him. Obviously overtaking is difficult, and to be honest I had to look more in my mirrors today.

“Robert was pushing quite hard and it was quite hard to get away from him.

“At the restart I was going more sideways than forwards, so it was quite difficult.”

Nonetheless Vettel was pleased with the result, which put him and Webber into the joint lead of the drivers’ championship and moved Red Bull to the top of the constructors’ table.

“In the end it was a 1-2 for us today, so I’m very, very happy,” said the German.

“We couldn’t have done better today and we scored a lot of good points which will count at the end of the year.”