Sebastian Vettel acknowledged Lewis Hamilton was too quick for Ferrari in qualifying, as the Briton took pole by over half a second at the British Grand Prix.
The German was expected to be the nearest challenger to his main title rival after showing good pace in final practice and the penalty for Valtteri Bottas. However, a poor final run meant he had to settle for third place after being beaten by his teammate Kimi Raikkonen.
The only consolation for Ferrari was they were both able to split the Mercedes, but the championship leader was still left amazed with the lap Hamilton was able to get.
When asked if he could have matched Hamilton’s 1:26.600s, Vettel responded: “No. I think the time he put in at the end was very strong.
“The one he put in before we were able to beat, the gap at the end was a bit bigger. I think he owned the pole position today.”
Raikkonen was also surprised with Hamilton’s pace but the former world champion remained positive and has a good belief in his car.
“I think we have a good car, not fast enough [for pole], but for the race hopefully we can challenge [Mercedes] and have a good run,” the 2007 world champion said.
“The last run I was a bit compromised, in the first sector especially, because tyres were not where they should have been.”
After the qualifying, Vettel was heard on the radio outraged, talking about the incident he said: “They could have been better on the out-lap but I was in traffic, we were in a bunch of three-four cars. But anyway it is a decent result.
“Most important is that the car is good, we improved it today and tomorrow should be better.
“We have always been closer on Sundays, so sitting here, having expectations, the answer [to if we can think we can be competitive] is always yes, but we’ll see tomorrow.”
