Sebastian Vettel admits he wasn’t 100 percent certain by the tactic he used in qualifying at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
The German found himself somewhat in a pickle as an attempt to make Q3 on the medium tyre failed before teammate Charles Leclerc would crash at Turn 8.
Eventually, he made his way into the top 10 on the soft compound and would have to recover again from a poor first lap, eventually claiming third on the grid.
“I had a good lap but I had no tow to close the lap so that cost a bit,” he explained, having moved himself to the front of the train for the final run.
“I am happy that we got sort of the maximum out, but not happy overall from the team point of view as we were expecting to have a better session with Charles and myself. I think we thought we would be closer to the front.”
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It was taking the risk to sit back and hope for a slipstream on the 2.2km main straight that allowed Valtteri Bottas to beat Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton to pole.
And Vettel explained just how effective the additional top speed can be.
“It depends, up to half a second [in lap time],” he suggested. “It is always a compromise because if you are too close in the middle sector you lose out.
“But I would say going with the other people, probably around three tenths [gain]. It could have been a bit closer with someone in front.”
Why did the Ferrari driver choose against using that approach?
“The track was getting cooler, the car was more difficult to drive and I prioritised to push on the out lap to have the tyres in the window when I started the lap.
“Now I sort of regret I didn’t take the gamble on but I think it was still probably the right call.”
Overall, while some were surprised to see Mercedes’ claim a third front-row lockout of the season, Vettel wasn’t one of them.
“I think they were a bit quicker than us today,” he stated. “For me, it started a bit slow, towards the end it was getting better but it was quite tricky, the session was very long, the sun was going down.”
