Sebastian Vettel believes Ferrari had no choice but to pit again during Sunday's Spanish Grand Prix, despite it costing him a podium finish.

The German made a good start to the race in Barcelona, moving ahead of Valtteri Bottas' Mercedes at the first corner, however, he would not have the pace to compete with eventual race winner Lewis Hamilton in the opening 10 laps.

He would try to at least close the gap by being the first of the leaders to pit, hoping the new tyres would offer a boost in performance and potentially disrupt the strategy of Mercedes.

When that failed though, the focus was on trying to maintain his position ahead from Bottas in third but when a Virtual Safety Car was required to clear Esteban Ocon's Force India, following an engine failure, the four-time world champion stopped again.

The result would be Vettel falling to fourth behind Max Verstappen but the fresh rubber would not give the desired extra grip to fight his way onto the podium.

“It was not an option to stay out, we were going through the tyres quicker than the others today," he claimed afterwards.

“Obviously it looks different and looks wrong but it was the right thing to do.”

It marked the third race in succession that the 30-year-old had squandered a podium finish after an incident with Max Verstappen and a mistake costing potential victories in China and Baku respectively.

After Hamilton's second consecutive win, it saw the world champion increase his championship lead to 17 points.

One potential area for debate after the Spanish GP was the impact of new thinner-treaded tyres which were introduced after heavy blistering was seen during pre-season testing.

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff vehemently denied his team pushed for the change but after problems with tyre temperatures in recent races, it was striking how much more suited the Barcelona-spec compounds were.

“It is hard to say how it would have been without the change but I think it probably impacted on us more than the others," Vettel claimed.

“Overall it has been a decent weekend, we just need to understand what to do with these tyres.

“I think we have these tyres again in Paul Ricard and Silverstone,” he added.

That claim is correct with Pirelli opting to use the tweaked design at all circuits which have been newly resurfaced.