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The glass is half empty for Ferrari's Arrivabene

By Alan Baldwin SILVERSTONE, England (Reuters) - Sebastian Vettel's third place finish at the British Grand Prix on Sunday was met with more pessimism than optimism by his Ferrari Formula One principal Maurizio Arrivabene. "I think the glass is half empty, not half full," the Italian told reporters. "We were doing a very good job in terms of strategy, the rain was helping us. But if the race was dry instead of being wet, the result was completely different," added Arrivabene gloomily. "So if we want to be serious, we need to start from there and to work on the problems that we have." Ferrari had started the race with both their cars on the third row of the grid, behind the two Mercedes at the front and the Williams pair on the second row. With the race starting in sunshine, the first four cars fought their own battle with Brazilian Felipe Massa leading the first 20 laps for Williams and looking comfortably faster than Ferrari. Only when it rained, and after Vettel pitted earlier than others for intermediate tyres, did the podium become within reach -- although not for Kimi Raikkonen who finished a disappointing eighth. It was the first time since Monaco in May that a Ferrari driver had finished in the top three -- even if Vettel won in Malaysia in March and the team have been the closest challengers to champions Mercedes. Asked what the problem was, Arrivabene replied: "We have to discuss it in-house. We were quite slow on the straights without gaining anything on the high-speed curves. This is the problem." Vettel, the four times champion who switched from Red Bull at the end of last year, acknowledged that the result could have been very different. "Without the rain we would not be on the podium," said the German. "Obviously it was not a very good weekend for us," he added. "We expected to be stronger. I think we were surprised by the pace of Williams on Saturday in qualifying and also on Sunday (in the dry). "I think you could also see it was not a good weekend from ourselves because the gap simply to the top was larger than at previous events." (Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Douglas Beattie)