The Toro Rosso driver finished down in 12th place after fights with BMW Sauber's Nick Heidfeld and McLaren's Lewis Hamilton.
And although he was never in contention for a points finish, Vettel was pleased with his effort.
"I think we can be proud of ourselves because we had a very strong race," said Vettel. "We started and finished P12, but we were in a part of the pack that included McLaren and BMW. I think we did a fantastic job of keeping ahead of one BMW simply because we had a better pace.
"We were not so lucky in terms of traffic and I would have liked the rain to come and help us a bit in the last fifteen laps but unfortunately it only arrived fifteen minutes after the finish.
"Overall, we can be happy. It was not an easy race and I had a lot of graining which made life harder. Definitely a step forward in performance terms compared to the last couple of races."
Teammate Sebastien Bourdais had to settle for 17th position, the Frenchman saying his strategy was ruined at the start, when he a position to Williams driver Kazuki Nakajima, on a one-stop strategy.
"As soon as Nakajima, who was on a one-stop, got ahead of me at the start, when my engine bogged down a little bit, it compromised my race," he said.
"I lost touch with the pack ahead and then I had to let Raikkonen past, but as he was in difficulty, I was actually pulling away from him, but I still had waved blue flags, which I thought was a bit harsh, so I lost around three seconds letting him by and then more time behind him."
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