Sebastian Vettel was left to reflect on a disappointing qualifying session for the Monaco Grand Prix that left the German only fourth on the grid, having failed to improve on his earlier lap times as his rivals had managed.
The Scuderia Ferrari driver had set the pace during Saturday morning’s final free practice session, and was looking to continue that form into qualifying to secure at least a front row start, but struggled with his grip levels when it mattered to leave him on the outside of the second row.
Vettel bemoaned that lack of grip, feeling it is more compromising around the streets of Monaco than anywhere else, and felt it was a chance gone begging for a front row start.
“Of course I’m really disappointed, because what we did on the car from Thursday to today was really good and we had improved it a lot,” said Vettel.
“This morning we had a very good start, I knew that there will be a lot more to come and I wasn’t worried at all, but as the qualifying progressed it was just getting more difficult for us to extract the grip.
“When you don’t have the grip here it’s more penalizing than on another track, the car was starting to slide a lot and at this stage we don’t understand why. While all the grid was going faster and faster, in the end we did the same fast laps we did at the beginning.
“I did what I could, but I was not as comfortable as I was in the morning. It’s disappointing because I missed a good opportunity to start the race potentially from the front tomorrow.
“I was expecting more because the car gave me all reason to expect more but in a couple of hours we’ll start to look forward, the race is tomorrow, we have a great car and a great pace.”
