Vettel simply lacked pace

Qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix had some good and bad surprises in store. Among the disappointments, Sebastian Vettel only finished 11th. The Red Bull driver was nevertheless satisfied with his car.

Published on 14/04/2012 à 14:58

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This has not happened to him since the 2009 Brazilian Grand Prix. Sebastian Vettel will not start in the top ten tomorrow in Shanghai, the driver Red Bull having only taken 11th position. The German had however chosen the old exhaust configuration on the RB8 unlike his teammate Mark Webber who managed to qualify in sixth place. Despite everything, he hopes to catch up in the race.

“It's always easy to talk about it afterwards, but I was satisfied with my car yesterday and that's why I decided to stay in this configuration today”, explains Sebastian Vettel. “I was satisfied with my qualifying laps. I didn?t make any mistakes but my times just weren?t good enough. We chose to keep the settings and I don't want to criticize the car. I did the same lap three times and it was never enough to get to Q3. I'll see what I can do starting from eleventh position. Completing a race will be more difficult but not impossible. »