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Vettel laments 'difficult' qualifying session

  • Published on 22 Jun 2019 18:34
  • 4
  • By: Fergal Walsh

Sebastian Vettel admits that he is puzzled after a "not great" qualifying session at Paul Ricard that saw him finish seventh.

In Q3, Vettel aborted his first hot lap, reporting to his team that he had an issue with his upshift, meaning that he just had one attempt to set a timed lap.

MORE: Vettel proposes F1 should 'burn' the rulebook after losing appeal

The end result was only good enough for seventh on the grid, behind the two McLarens. 

"Not great,” said Vettel. “It was up and down, some laps I felt really good, others I didn’t. In the end I didn’t get the best out of the car, which is not satisfying.

"But as I say it was difficult for me because some laps it was really good and was just coming, and other laps I don’t know why but I didn’t have the grip that I seemed to have the runs before.

“It's a shame that it happened in Q3. it would have been better to be slower in the other segments, but that’s what it is today. The car was better than where we ended up but I'm confident tomorrow we can recover."

Upgrades 'not the step' Ferrari hoped for

Ferrari introduced some upgrades in France, bringing a new floor, front wing and rear wing to the event at Le Castellet. 

However, it reverted back to its old floor after Friday running as it was deemed that the fresh components didn't improve the pace of the car.

“We reverted on most of them so obviously not the step that we expected," Vettel admitted. "But tomorrow I think we have good pace to have a good race. Obviously, Mercedes are far away but we should be in the mix with Red Bull.”

F1 News Sebastian Vettel Ferrari

Replies (4)

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  • f1fan0101

    Posts: 1,804

    really poor showing

    • + 0
    • Jun 22 2019 - 19:14
  • ajpennypacker

    Posts: 2,475

    He needs to get over the penalty thing, he's obviously disgruntled. Should make the race interesting tomorrow. He will be angrily trying to get back to the front

    • + 0
    • Jun 22 2019 - 19:26
  • calle.itw

    Posts: 8,527

    I agree that he probably suffered from "the ghosts", and need to get a grip until tomorrow.

    • + 0
    • Jun 22 2019 - 20:02
  • xoya

    Posts: 583

    It is my sincere opinion that he is burnt out and that he should take a hiatus at the very least.
    It could not do him bad to "recharge his batteries" a bit.
    It would probably spell the end of his career but he is going in that direction anyways with this type of driving and antics. :/

    • + 0
    • Jun 23 2019 - 13:52

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