Vettel "predicted" Verstappen's overtaking move

Sebastian Vettel has insisted he "predicted" the attempt of an overtake by his rival Max Verstappen during the Chinese Grand Prix.

Verstappen was the first driver out of the leading pack to pit during the race in China, and this allowed him to attack Vettel when his Ferrari pitted just one lap later.

The Red Bull driver tried to go inside of Vettel at the hairpin, but the Dutchman's car locked up, which allowed the German to get back past him on the exit of the corner and this allowed him to stay ahead of Verstappen.

"I saw him coming and the speed delta at the end of the straights is quite big now," Vettel said, as quoted by Motorsport.com. "Knowing Max as well as I do, I knew that he will try.

"I was sort of predicting that he will try and go down the inside and I tried to cut back, and it worked. I had a bit of a moment, I had to open the car a bit, but it was good.

"I could nearly get a car-length ahead of him and the angle into the last corner for him wasn't very sexy. It was good fun but we would have loved to be a bit faster."