Sebastian Vettel will have a choice of starting from eighth place in Barcelona on either hard or soft tyres after failing to record a flying lap time in Q3.
The German soon realised that he didn’t have the pace to qualify at the front, and had to use up an extra set of soft tyres in Q2 to make it into Q3.
“I think qualifying was very different, to be honest,” said Vettel. “I think we did the best we could. In Q2 the first run wasn’t very strong so then I had to go again and I had no more new soft tyres for the last run in Q3.
“We decided to save some of the tyres, which we think is important for tomorrow, but we didn’t have the pace. I think the lap for pole position and to be honest all of the top five are pretty impressive from our point of view, so we didn’t have that speed in the car.
“We did go out and try to get a place against Nico, but he had a very strong lap on a used set so we decided to abort. Now we have a free choice of tyres tomorrow. Let’s see what we can come up with, and we’ll go from there.”
Vettel admitted that the car wasn’t as good as it had been in the morning.
“We were a bit surprised by how much of a step the others could do. I think in the end we were more or less where we expected to be, but surely it did feel a bit better in practice, so we were not able to make that step which everyone else seemed to be able to make.
“There’s something to gain there. But surely you have to respect the fact that they were simply quicker. If it’s within a tenth or two you can always argue a little bit here, a little bit there, but there was a bit more missing than that. Nevertheless I’m quite confident for the race. We have a couple of new sets which did prove successful for some people previously this year, so hopefully it’s our turn tomorrow.
“I hope for a good start. It’s a long way to Turn One, and it’s obviously good when you are a little bit further back. If you are in the front, you are a bit more exposed. Let’s see what we can do. It’s a long race, a lot of pit stops i imagine, so let’s see what happens.”
Regarding the role of tyre management on Sunday, he said: “It’s always important, especially round here. Look at last year, quite a lot of stops, so I’m not expecting anything else for tomorrow. That’s why I think tyres will be important, we’ve got a couple of new sets.”
Adam Cooper F1 