Vettel: Podium no Christmas present

The German was never in contention after Ferrari failed to match the pace of the Mercedes and Williams teams, and his cause was not aided by a poor start that dropped him down the order from sixth on the grid.

However, Vettel got his tyre choice right when the rain started to fall, switching to intermediates at exactly the right time.

That allowed the Ferrari driver to finish in third behind Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, but Vettel insisted the result was no gift.

"It is not a Christmas gift, Santa wasn't there waving me into the pits, he didn't tell me which lap [to pit]," said Vettel.

"It was our own decision but not a lot of people got it right. That is our choice and that is what we achieved today."

He added: "Yes, without the rain we would not be on the podium so I think we kept our heads down and were patient enough to wait until the rain poured down properly at the end.

"That is England for you; it helped us today, we came in on the perfect lap."

Vettel admitted, however, that Ferrari's below-par performance during the weekend came as a surprise.

"It was not a very good weekend for us," he said. "We expected to be stronger. We were surprised by the pace of Williams on Saturday and Sunday.

"You could see it was not a good weekend for ourselves, as the gap was larger than previous events."