Team mate Kimi Raikkonen, on pole for the first time in nine years, lost out in the pitstops but secured a Ferrari one-two with Hamilton finishing seventh for Mercedes after starting 13th.
Vettel denied the switch had been planned in order to boost his title hopes but Lewis Hamilton - who has dropped 25 points behind Vettel in the championship - believes it is "clear" Ferrari has chosen to favour Vettel in this year's title fight.
Hamilton had struggled on Saturday to warm up his tyres properly and was eliminated from qualifying before the final session, logging the 14th-fastest time.
"We have time until Montreal - another hard track - but we need to get on top of things". Vettel would have received seven fewer points if he had finished Sunday's race at No. 2. Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes) - 75 4. Hamilton said over the radio in the closing laps. "I didn't make any mistakes, I got these points and at the end of the season maybe those points will be valuable".
"I came in this morning feeling bad and I didn't sleep a lot last night".
"We were caught on the back foot [during FP2] on Thursday afternoon and we somehow never recovered".
"Of course I can't afford another weekend like this, at the going rate with the Ferraris quick", he admitted "But because you can't afford something doesn't mean it is not going to happen".
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'But the more races we do, the more we learn and the stronger we get.
"We've definitely got to improve in understanding the auto and do a better job. I went through a really tricky phase with some tricky tyres - they started to slide but had a second chance after the pit".
"I'm trying to figure out something that is impossible to know right now, at least from my side", said Raikkonen, when asked about the timing of his stop.
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff also played down any talks of Ferrari favouring Vettel over Raikkonen and instead admitted that they were the quicker cars and congratulated them on their one-two finish at Monaco.
With cars zooming around at almost 200mph, when things go wrong in Formula 1 racing, they can go spectacularly wrong.
"I did what I came to do today, didn't make any silly mistakes, didn't damage the vehicle, got those points and I'd like to think at the end of the season those points are going to be valuable".
Still it was put to Raikkonen, a veteran of 259 races that he could have said something, stayed out, but he poured cold water on that notion. "It is about bringing the tyres into the right window; we have a fast auto but she doesn't like the tyres and that is something we need to understand".
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