Sebastian Vettel rued an "up and down" Ferrari and a difficult Q3 after only managing seventh on the grid for the French Grand Prix.

The German's performance has been far from consistent throughout the weekend, as Charles Leclerc leads the charge for the Scuderia, but there had been moments when the gap has been minimal.

After abandoning his first flying lap in the top 10 shootout, Vettel was left under pressure and would disappoint as he finished almost a second down on his teammate and behind both McLaren's.

“I don’t know what happened but I lost so much momentum that there was no point to finish that [first] lap,” Sebastian said after initially reporting a missed gearshift over the radio.

On the car, he added: “It was not great, up and down. Some laps felt great, others didn’t.

“In the end I didn’t get the best out of the car, which is not satisfying but as I said it was difficult for me because some laps it was really good, it was coming, and some laps I don’t know why but I didn’t have the grip that I did on the runs before.

“It’s a shame that it happened in Q3, it would have been better to be slower in the other segments but that is what it is today.”

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Hopes that an upgrade at Paul Ricard could see trigger a shift in Ferrari's season have also fallen flat, with Vettel confirming most of the parts had been taken off after practice.

However, the four-time champion does anticipate he can make up for the disappointment on Sunday.

“Tomorrow I think we have good pace to have a good race," he stated, "Obviously Mercedes is far away but we should be in the mix with Red Bull.”