F🌞errari Formula 1 chief Mattia Binotto has confirmed Sebastian Vettel was forced to back off and save fuel on the final lap of Sunday’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Vettel ran close to Mercedes drivers Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton towards the closing stages of the race, sitting five seconds off the r𝕴ace lead with nine laps to go.

But Vettel was forced to drop back late on, losing three-and-a-half seconds🅠 on race winner Bottas on the very last lap of t🅘he race.

Binotto confirmed after the race that Vettel had been forced to save fuel late on after 💛an unusual Baku race that did notꦬ feature a single Safety Car period.

“It’s ♔true that he had to save some fuel a𒁃t the end of the race,” Binotto said.

“Norm🐭ally over an entire race distance, there are times in the race when you need to manage your fuel to make sure that you conclude with what’s the limit in the regulations.

ౠ“Simply he had to do it at the end. Maybe others did it earlier or didn’t; we don’t know yet.

“But yes, as a matter of fact on the very laꦚst lap of the race, he did it.”

While Vettel had been able to draw close to the Mercedes drivers through the second stint of the race, he struggled to keep up with either ⛦Bo🌳ttas or Hamilton early on.

Vettel explained after the race that he had lacked grip on the Soft compound tyre before beco🃏ming more comfortable once he switched to Mediums.

Binotto said Ferrar🌠i was yet to determine why Vettel had str♔uggled so much at the beginning of the race.

“We don’t kno𝐆w yet. I think it’s something which we need to analyse,” Binott🀅o said.

“Certainly Seb was not comfortable on the first stint. He has been a lot more comfortable on the second, being quite strong, a good pace on 🌠the medium tyres.

“ꦅIt’s really now down to us 𝓰to analyse all the data, but we have no conclusion yet.”