Vettel thinks Mercedes' were out of reach

Sebastian Vettel has refused to blame anyone or anything but himself after qualifying for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. The German looked to be struggling throughout the whole session and ended up in P4, behind the two Mercedes' and Kimi Raikkonen.

Vettel also wore an old engine for qualifying and will do so for the race, as he was forced to take the original engine out this morning when a hydraulics leak was detected. 

Interestingly, Vettel believes that Mercedes was just too quick today, and stated that he could have claimed no higher than P3. This qualifying session marks the first time all season that Vettel failed to make it inside the top three.

"I think the result is OK, but I'm not entirely happy obviously," said Vettel. "This morning didn't help, but it's not an excuse, we are doing enough laps. In the end I was alone, had no tow in the last sector, but I'm not a big fan of excuses, I could have done a bit better. Probably P3 was the maximum."

Fergal Walsh