Sebastian Vettel came in second place in the US Grand Prix qualifying race and believes he got “closer than expected” to his main rival Lewis Hamilton.
Vettel was 0.332s behind Hamilton in Q2 and was 0.598s away in Q1, but in the second run of Q3, he was just 0.239s adrift of Hamilton and grabbed the second place.
In his first Q3 run, Vettel was fourth, behind both the Mercedes and his teammate Kimi Räikkönen. But he improved his position significantly in his second run.
Speaking after the race, Vettel said: “I think we are very happy with the result, it is crucial to get the final run,”
“I didn’t find rhythm straight away in qualifying, struggled a bit in a few corners, then got it right in the final run.
“In the end, we were closer than expected. For tomorrow, if the car behaves like today, it should be good.”
Vettel admitted his first try in Q3 was dismal and was worried other drivers from the top three teams might out qualify him.
“I struggled a bit into Turn 8, the wind was quite tricky all day. The morning was fine and afternoon I started on the wrong foot.
“My first lap in Q3 was pretty poor, so I knew I had to deliver. Without that it could have been P6 or something, so the timing was just right.”
Vettel’s performance at Friday Free practice was not up to the mark. After FP2, he had complained of the front axle being like a “jelly.” The team investigated the issue, but could not find the root cause, so elected to build a new chassis overnight.
After FIA’s inspection and approval, the new chassis was installed before the final free practice session and it looks like the problem has been resolved.
“A big job overnight but the team was fantastic. The mechanics now have had a couple of weekends in a row with a lot of work and last-minute engine changes, chassis change.
“It is a record time to change, which isn’t what we want – but today I was much happier with the car, glad it worked out.”
After gaining a narrow lead over Vettel at in the first Q3 run, Raikkonen did not improve any further in his next trial. The Finn came in fifth behind Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo who clocked a similar time but in the first run.
“I think it was quite OK,” Raikkonen said. “The car was better than it has been so far this weekend.
“I was quite happy in most of the places. there were few places I struggled to turn round a bit the car and ended up losing time.
“Some laps I got it a bit better in those places but mostly not. I felt I struggled in those places.
“Without that, I think we had pretty decent speed. It would be nice to be higher up but I’m quite happy with the car, I just lost time in some corners where I had some difficulties.”
