Vettel: Yellow flags made it impossible to progress to Q2

The four-time world champion will start tomorrow's race from 18th of the grid after he was knocked out in Q1 during his first qualifying session with Aston Martin. The team struggled in pre-season testing and seemed to be lacking pace throughout practice in Bahrain.

Vettel looked to be on the cusp of elimination after his first runs, before a spin by Nikita Mazepin at Turn 1 prevented him from improving. The German's teammate Lance Stroll did make it into Q3, but was slowest of the front runners and will start 10th.

"I think it is fair to say the result today is disappointing and not what we wanted," Vettel said. "My first lap in Q1 had quite a bit of margin for improvement, but on my second run there were two yellow flags, which made it impossible to progress to Q2.

"There was a yellow flag at turn one and one later in the lap too. I was just unlucky with my position on the track. On a positive note, the car felt better in qualifying and all the work we have done since testing is taking us in a good direction, so we have the potential to be faster. Even though we are not starting where we want to be, it is tomorrow that counts. Our job is to maximise all the opportunities and see what happens."