Sebastian Vettel came close to pole position for the Austrian Grand Prix on Saturday, but despite ending up 0.042 seconds shy, he was pleased to have a competitive car compared to the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team.
Ferrari qualified more than a second down on Mercedes during qualifying in Azerbaijan two weeks ago, but Vettel managed to split Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton this weekend at the Red Bull Ring, much to the German drivers delight.
Vettel knows Mercedes are always quick in qualifying and that Saturday’s sessions usually play to the German marquee’s strengths, but now that Ferrari showed well this weekend, he has high hopes of a good race result on Sunday.
“In the second run I was hoping to jump Bottas and I think I could have done better, but in the end I am pretty happy with my lap; the car is very good,” said Vettel. “Mercedes is always very quick in qualifying, but today we were close.
“I think it should be fine tomorrow. It will be a long race and many things can happen. The most important thing is that the car was good in qualifying.
“We will try to do our race and look forward. For sure it will be tough, but let’s see what we can do”.
