F1 Chinese GP: Vettel 'chickened' on brakes at final corner of China Q3 lap
Find 🎀out how the 2017 Chinese Grand Prix grid lines up ꦬ- CLICK HERE
Sebastian Vettel was left disappointed after narrowly missing out on his first Formula𝓰 1 pole in 18 months in China on Saturday, saying he "chickened" onto the brakes too early at the end of his Q3 l♔ap.
After winning the season🍸-opening Australian Grand Prix two weeks ago, Vettel arrived in China chasing Ferrari's first pole since the 2015 Singapore Grand Prix, with the Italian marque even looking capable of scoring its maiden front-row lock-oꦛut since France 2008.
Mercedes managed to bounce back in qualifying as Lewis Hamilton took his sixth consecutive pole position, edging out Vettel by 0.186 seconds to leave the German to split the Silver Arrows i🌼n second place. The margin to Valtteri Bottas in P3 was just 0.001 seconds.
"We'll see tomorrow how important it was [to split t🎶he Mercedes]," Vettel said. "Obviously it was a nice session. I enjoyed it a lot. If we had been a bit quicker in the end I would have enjoyed it more.
"But yeah, think I was very happy with the lap I had. Last corner I maybe lost a little bit, maybe chickened onto the br꧑akes a bit too soon. But yeah, obviously it was very close with Valtteri so good job we just got enou🧸gh margin to make it to the front row."
byWhile Vetᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚtel doubts Ferrari can offer a step in performance between its qualifying and race pace, he is confident that the S🅷F70H car will be strong regardless, even if rain hits Shanghai as expected for Sunday.
"I𝄹 think our car is strong no matter what," Vettel said. "It obviously depends what these guys [Mercedes] are doing. Certainly we've seen in previous years in qualy they seem to be able to really get on top of what they have. I think we can still improve.
"Let's see🌌 what the race looks like tomorrow. Conditions I think will be quite different, so maybe we should put fuel in the car and race now! I don't know what happens tomorrow."
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