A content Sebastian Vettel says he’ll “need a bit of luck” if he’s to take his third victory of the year at the 2018 Monaco Grand Prix after qualifying second to Daniel Ricciardo.
Vettel’s lap-time of 1:11.039 was over two-tenths-of-a-second slower than Ricciardo’s time, but Vettel says he’s happy to be starting on the crucial front row.
“I’ve been quite happy today,” said Vettel, “even if you always have the feeling you could do much more. However, we tried to get everything out of our car and we got a good position.
“Red Bull has been strong since Thursday, but we got as close as we could. The main thing for us is that our car has potential.
“In the first corner I just couldn’t drive the way I wanted but for the rest it was ok. It was a tricky session also in terms of getting the tires together.”
While qualifying at Monaco is more critical than most other events, Vettel remains aware that race strategy will play a crucial part in the race’s outcome.
“Now we’ll focus on the start tomorrow, but it will be a long race. It will be a different game to play tomorrow, compared to today. On Sunday, it could be more tactical, and we need to consider that a short period of the race could decide the result of the race itself.
“Also, we need a bit of luck, but the most important thing is to be ready to react. We know what we have to do, so we’ll see how the race turns out”.