Sebastian Vettel will start the British Grand Prix down in eleventh after his gearbox penalty relegated him from his sixth place in qualifying, although the German feels he should have qualified high but for two mistakes during his two runs in Q3.
The Scuderia Ferrari driver made a mistake at Stowe on his first run, and then made another error at Abbey on his second that ultimately condemned him to the sixth fastest time, which with his five-place penalty moves him down to eleventh.
Vettel feels out of position amid the midfield, but feels confident that he has the speed in his car to move back into contention towards the front of the field, even if qualifying didn’t go the way he had planned after feeling happier with the car during free practice.
“I’m not happy with my lap, the car was better than this morning,” said Vettel. “I was in a very good lap but I lost the car at Stowe in the first run, trying a bit too hard, then in the second one I went wide in Turn 1 and lost the car from there.
“On this track it seems we are a bit behind, I think we have done good steps in the past, but probably not enough, also compared to other people, so I think there’s a lot of catching up for us to do. We need to make the car quicker, to put more downforce in it, make it more efficient at the same time, and add a bit of power.
“Replacing the gearbox is something we have to accept, and we did accept it going into the session. It’s not something that is in your head when you start a race, I look forward for a good one tomorrow, the pace is there, we don’t belong where we start the race, and that’s why I’m quite sure we can make good progress.
“I hope for a good start, a good first lap and then we’ll see. Maybe we’ll have some rain, anyway we need to keep our head down, keep calm and just go racing and enjoy”.
