Vettel: Maybe we can turn it around

But now after qualifying behind a dominant Mercedes team, it is fair to say that the Ferrari driver is now on the ropes for the first time in this 21-round bout for the title as he needs to beat Hamilton on Sunday but appears not to have the ammo

Ferrari's once benchmark pace has gone missing this weekend, but a credit to Vettel's determination is the fact that he still believes.

"Maybe we can turn it around," Vettel told reporters. "It would be nice but it depends on the start. The initial jump and then you know where you are and we’ll see what we can do for the first corner. But after that it’s a long race, so tricky one but for sure if there’s a gap we’ll go for it.”

The German was not deterred by the half-second gap to pole winner Bottas, "It was important to get as close as possible to them and we’ll see but it’s true they’ve been very quick so we’ll see tomorrow.

“It is a long race, we’ve seen the tyres are very important. Today I think it should have been a bit closer, the gap, but [we had] not enough to be a threat."

"I had a tiny mistake in the last sector but I knew I had to improve by half a second. I had to try, it didn’t work, but I’m quite happy. The car felt alright, so that makes me positive for Sunday," added Vettel who has never won in Russia.