BUDAPEST, Hungary — Sebastian Vettel insists Ferrari’s qualifying performance at the Hungarian Grand Prix was not a disaster despite being outperformed by Mercedes at a track where the Italian team was favourite for pole position.
Just one week after Vettel crashed out of the lead of the German Grand Prix in damp conditions, the weather conspired against him again on Saturday as a rain storm during qualifying played into Mercedes’ hands. Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas locked out the front row for Mercedes in the soaking conditions and Vettel, who had been fastest in the dry practice session on Saturday morning, had to settle for fourth behind teammate Kimi Raikkonen.
“I don’t think today was awful and it’s not a disaster to start third and fourth — the gaps weren’t huge to Mercedes — but certainly we would have wanted to be ahead in the dry,” he said. “In the dry it could have been a different outcome but it wasn’t dry, so we need to make sure we are always up there [in allconditions], so there is still work for us to do.”
Vettel said the car’s behaviour in the wet was different to the dry but believes the lap itself was not too bad.
“Obviously when it’s wet everything feels a bit different and then we are not as competitive in the wet as we are in the dry,” he added. “But in these conditions anything can happen and obviously you see the gap is quite big at times and in the end it came down to the final lap and I pushed quite hard and tried everything.
“Maybe it wasn’t the tidiest lap but it also wasn’t awful, so I’m pretty OK with the result. Obviously I would like to be further up, but that’s what we have now and for tomorrow we start with a clean sheet of paper and room open for strategy for everyone.”