Sebastian Vettel admitted he could’ve found a little more time on his final qualifying lap if he hadn’t braked too early for the final corner.
Vettel said it “was a nice session, I enjoyed it a lot, if I could’ve been a bit quicker here I would have enjoyed it even more.”
“But I was very happy with the lap I had. Last corner maybe I lost a little bit, maybe ‘chickened’ onto the brakes a little bit too soon. Obviously it was very close with Valtteri so good job we just got enough margin to make it to the front row.”
The Ferrari driver won the season-opening race by jumping ahead of Hamilton through the pits. However he was reluctant to predict whether they would be quicker in the race again.
“It obviously depends what these guys are doing,” he said. “I think our car is strong no matter what.”
Vettel was quickest in Q1 and set the fastest time at the beginning of Q2 as well until it was beaten by his team mate. But he had no answer for Hamilton in the pole position shoot-out.
“Certainly we’ve seen also in previous years their quali they seem to really be able to get on top of what they have,” he added. “I think we can still improve so let’s see what the race looks like tomorrow.”
Damon85
8th April 2017, 10:09
I think Hamilton did as well tbh as Bottas was faster in sector 3.
@F1-liners (@f1-liners)
8th April 2017, 10:43
GRO & GIO didn’t ‘chicken on the brakes’ ;)
Tifoso1989 (@tifoso1989)
8th April 2017, 10:50
That’s the key in China you can lose the whole lap in one corner, nice to see Vettel here doing a Prost and playing it safe, he’s already focusing on his WDC battle with Lewis.
Kgn11
8th April 2017, 11:08
No he wasn’t playing it safe, he wanted pole and just didn’t have the confidence on the brakes at one corner.
Tifoso1989 (@tifoso1989)
8th April 2017, 12:09
Everyone on the grid wants the pole including Marcus Ericson. It’s against a racer’s instinct to brake earlier even if he wasn’t confident. Therefore, he played it safe.
Grant
8th April 2017, 19:10
:D
NewVerstappenFan (@jureo)
8th April 2017, 11:38
:D He chickened out, because they are going 325kph in to the first corner mostly flat and then scrub the speed with cornering… and only then brake. :P
What we see my friends is top drivers in the world being pushed by their machinery and conditions, to the point of chickening out.
Joao (@johnmilk)
8th April 2017, 14:10
He is talking about the last corner, not the first
magon4 (@magon4)
8th April 2017, 13:56
Many may complain, and often rightly so, about some of Seb’s antics. But he does keep it real quite a lot. There will never be a day where, say, Fernando will admit publicly and unasked to a driving “error”.