Sebastian Vettel was full of praise for rival Lewis Hamilton after losing out to the Briton in qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix on Saturday, but knows his front row grid slot gives him a great opportunity to fight for the win on Sunday.
Hamilton broke the lap record around the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve to deny the Scuderia Ferrari driver by 0.330 seconds, but Vettel knew he hadn’t done enough for pole position, especially after a mistake at turn two on his final attempt.
Without the mistake, Vettel felt he could have been much closer, if not ahead of his main championship rival, but the German has high hopes of a strong race on Sunday, especially after showing strongly at the same circuit in 2016 in what was then a somewhat inferior car.
“I was not so happy with my job in the last run of Q3” said Vettel. “It is true that we faced tough competition, but we could have been closer. We could even have been ahead, but Lewis did a very good job today.
“As for me, I lost the car in Turn 2 and from there I knew I had to catch up. The car was very good and I had been happy in the morning session.
“To be on the front row gives you the chance to make a good start. I am looking forward to tomorrow, I am sure we’re going to have a very close race. This is a nice track and we had a good run here also last year.”
