Sebastian Vettel says he’s seen ꦚno outright pattern to his qualifying deficit to Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc after being out-qualified by the Monegasque for the ninth consecutive race.

The Ferrari driver will start the Russian Gran🌳d Prix in third place at the Sochi Autodromo as Mer♒cedes’ Lewis Hamilton split him to teammate Leclerc who recorded a fourth consecutive pole position – the first time a Ferrari has achieved that feat since Michael Schumacher who completed it across the 2000-2001 seasons.

With just one pole position to his name all season, coming at the Canadian Grand Prix, Vettel accepts Leclerc has just been quicker ov💝er a single flying lap 𝔉in recent races but feels they are more closely matched on race pace.

“In qualifying here and there we didn’t have the best sessions on my side,” Vettel said. “I think obviously today Charles was faster, pretty easy to see where he was faster, it’s a little bit here and there, I don’t think there’s any pattern standing out saying he’s faster in the same ꦗtype of💖 corner.

“I think the last races were closer than i💝t s𝔉howed on result. We will see what happens tomorrow.

“Usually, come race day, I’m getting more and more confident in the car and have had the pace has never been a🎶🅘 problem in the race so we’ll see what happens.

“I was pretty happy with the car, I j༺ust felt there was more in the car I couldn’t get to.”

After a breakthrough win last time out in Singapore, Vettel remains wary of the threat both Mercedes drivers pose starting on the harder tyres compared to the Ferrari pair who will start on the soft tyres, with race strategy expected to playꦕ a key role.

“The last race was diff꧙icult to pass, I think Mercedes was faဣster than us in the race, so we’ll see tomorrow with strategies.

“I think tomorrow is a long race, we have good p꧅ace for the race, it will be very interesting with Mercedes, who are on different tyres to start with, so let’s see what happens.”