For a man needing to light a fire under his Formula 1 World Championship title challenge, Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel looked somewhat forlorn when he alighted his car and had his mandatory grid interview after qualifying second for the Belgian Grand Prix.
Vettel and Ferrari had the upper hand throughout the three practice sessions, even up until the end of Q2 in qualifying which the German topped. Pole was his for the taking we thought...
But when the rain suddenly poured down and turned Spa-Francorchamps treacherous and in need of intermediates, Ferrari and Vettel were left lacking as Lewis Hamilton nabbed pole with a great lap, better performance and package when the conditions turned wet.
It was hardly fighting talk from Vettel when he told Sky, "There was confusion and maybe I wasn't as calm as I could have been in the car. It didn't feel as if I got everything out for various reasons, therefore it was a bit of a scrappy session, but it can be a lot worse."
Later in his qualifying review, Vettel added, "I could have done much more but I made some mistakes, therefore I am happy with second position, albeit not completely of course."
"When it suddenly starts raining as it did today, everything gets more confused and there’s more traffic on track. You know that every lap is important, but you also know that the last one could be the best."
"However, we have a good car, our people are pushing very hard and I think we have taken another step forward here. I believe that speed is the main aspect that can make the difference."
"We’ll see how we get off the line tomorrow in the first lap, but I think that if we have better speed, then we will find the right way to pass."
"We’ve been very close so far, so I think we’ll see the real pace tomorrow in the race," added Vettel who trails Hamilton by 24 points in the championship standings with nine rounds remaining in which Ferrari and their star driver can ill afford to trip as they did in the first half of the season.
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