Ferrari just misses pole (again) with Vettel

Although dominating the first two parts of qualifying in China, Ferrari missed pole position to Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes. While Räikkönen led everyone in Q2, it was Vettel who went on to defend the Reds for pole position. In the end, he will be satisfied with having positioned himself between the two Mercedes.

Sebastian Vettel, 2nd (1:31.864 in Q3)

Vettel was ultimately beaten by the triple world champion British driver by less than two tenths of a second. But the closest fight was against the Finnish Mercedes driver, Valtteri Bottas, whom he beat by only one thousandth of a second: «Obviously, Valtteri and I were very close, so it’s a good job! We had enough margin to reach the front row». In this attempt, the quadruple world champion stated he mishandled his last corner. An event he believes was detrimental against Hamilton: «In the last corner, maybe I lost a bit by hitting the brakes too early.»

The Ferrari driver is already noticing a trend in the performance level of the SF70H compared to its German competitor from Brackley: « In qualifying, we lack a bit of pace and in the race it’s a close fight […] In Australia, during the race, Lewis struggled more with his tires than we did ».

The German, who brought Ferrari back to victory in the Grand Prix in Melbourne after a lean 2016 season, seems more confident than ever behind the wheel of his single-seater, despite the forecasted weather for Sunday: « Whatever the conditions, the car works, so we will try to be as fast as possible in the race ».

Kimi Räikkönen, 4th (1:32.140 in Q3)

While his teammate claims not to reproach his car since the start of the season, Kimi Räikkönen admitted to suffering from understeer in Shanghai during qualifying: The first Q3 stint was simply mediocre overall, and we struggled with turn 3 throughout the entire qualifying, just a bit more understeer.

The Finn claims to be using a different package than Vettel in China and laments not having been able to make his car work during this Friday in Shanghai, between a rainy first practice session and a canceled second session: « If we had been able to run yesterday, we would have made a more thoughtful decision [for today ed.]. But that’s how it goes sometimes. It takes a bit of time to solve the problems and it’s obviously not ideal, but we know the problem and we just need a few “clear” Fridays. I’m sure that for the next race, we can be a bit happier. Overall, it’s not too bad, the mistakes are little things, but ultimately, all these little things make a big difference over a lap ».