Vettel: Qualifying result a 'shame' despite 'positive surprise'

Sebastian Vettel has admitted he is disappointed to have missed out on pole position by such a close margin but says that the day brought positive surprises for Ferrari. The German was beaten to the top spot by just 0.061 by title rival Lewis Hamilton.

It was the first time in a number of Grands Prix weekends that Ferrari was able to challenge the Silver Arrows. Hamilton is on the verge of securing his fifth world title, and can do so if he wins in Austin on Sunday and Vettel fails to finish in second place.

Vettel will start the race from fifth on the grid after he picked up a penalty on Friday for a red flag infringement. The former Red Bull driver admits he is happy to see Ferrari back on form but says its a shame to miss out on the glory by such a small gap.

“It was pretty close but always a bit of a shame to miss out on just that bit of time,” Vettel said. “Six-hundredths, I think you can always debate that you had that somewhere. I was pretty happy with the lap. I think it was quite tricky to get everything together.”

“I think given the last couple of weeks that we had we are pretty happy that they're back in range,” he said. “Today has been a positive surprise I guess for both of us to see how competitive we have been today given how far we’ve been behind for the last two races. There are some positives but if you are that close you probably want to be ahead.”