• British Grand Prix - Qualifying

'Tough day' for Vettel at Silverstone

ESPN Staff
July 7, 2012 « Schumacher hopes for wet race | Hamilton struggles with tyre temperatures »
Sebastian Vettel was quickest in Q1 but couldn't match his team-mate in Q3 © Press Association
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Sebastian Vettel felt that he should have been faster on "a tough day" of qualifying for the British Grand Prix.

Following the lengthy rain delay during Q2, Vettel eventually qualified in fourth place but was nearly half a second slower than Fernando Alonso and 0.4s behind his Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber. Vettel said that it had been a difficult day and that he should have been quicker but that he was pleased to be starting on the front two rows.

"It was a tough day," Vettel said. "It's raining again now and it will probably be the same weather again tomorrow, so we'll see what happens. It's going to be a long race. We are at the front which is good. It was difficult today and in the end we only got one lap when the conditions were at their best. I think I should have been a bit quicker, but that's life. It was the right call to red flag the session, it's a shame for everyone watching, but we cannot control the weather."

Christian Horner said that Red Bull had delivered a "strong team result" but admitted he would hope for a dry race on Sunday.

"It was the right thing to stop qualifying in Q2, irrelevant of where we were placed, as it was just too dangerous with aquaplaning for these cars," he said. "Having navigated our cars into Q3, ultimately to qualify second and fourth is a really strong team result. Mark was so close to getting the pole, the rain just started to increase as he was completing his lap and he dropped a couple of tenths due to the rain, but nonetheless it was a great lap from him right at the end of Q3. Sebastian is right up there as well in P4. Hopefully it won't be so wet tomorrow for the race."

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