Scuderia Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel was unhappy with the outcome of qualifying for the Mexican Grand Prix on Saturday, as both Ferrari drivers struggled with the super-soft tyres during Q3.
Having looked strong on the soft tyre during Q2, it had people wondering whether they might even challenge the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team drivers for pole, but unable to get the super-soft tyres working in the optimum performance window in Q3, left them much further down the order than they had anticipated.
“I am very disappointed, because the car is quick. Our Q2 had been a walk in the park with the Soft tires. I had a much better feeling, but then with the super-softs we were nowhere.”
On Friday the Maranello based squad looked extremely competitive, with Vettel even topping the times in FP2, however qualifying was a completely different story.
Both drivers were unable to improve their times in the final stint, and could only make it onto the third and fourth rows of the grid, with team-mate Kimi Raikkonen in sixth and Vettel way down in seventh.
That sees the Ferrari drivers start behind both Red Bull Racing cars and also a Sahara Force India Formula 1 Team machine, a position they would not have dreamed they would be in at the start of qualifying.
“Yesterday we were gaining quite a lot on the super-soft compound and today we didn’t gain anything.
“We tried a couple of things, but in qualifying you can’t turn the world upside down: so now we need to have a look and see why.
“Everybody improved on the super-softs, more or less half a second – everybody except us.”
Despite their problems during qualifying the German believes they have the pace for a strong race, if yesterday’s issues can be resolved, it will just make things more difficult for them, starting further down the order.
“The car is quick, there is nothing wrong with it, and we start where the car doesn’t belong.
“It doesn’t make our race easier to start further back, but I think we still have a chance.”
