• Korean Grand Prix - Qualifying

'My lap wasn't good enough' - Vettel

Sebastian Vettel: "Overall I think we can be very happy with the result" © Sutton Images

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Sebastian Vettel said his qualifying lap simply was not good enough for pole position at the Korean Grand Prix and refrained from blaming Felipe Massa for holding him up ahead of his flying lap.

Vettel looked destined for pole throughout the three sessions of qualifying but was pipped to the top spot by Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber on his final run. Vettel came up behind Massa ahead of his final run and had to back off and after his lap asked his race engineer Guillaume Rocquelin "Why didn't you tell me about Massa?" Rocquelin replied: "What was I supposed to say? He was on a timed lap. He was going as fast a he could go."

When asked if Massa had cost him a shot at pole, Vettel played down the role of the Ferrari driver on his lap.

"Overall I think we can be very happy with the result," he said." We were quite quick in the first qualifying session, quite quick in the second one and then I had a good start to Q3 but the last run - I don't want to blame it on Felipe because I thought he was coming in but in the last sector he was in front of me so I had to back off, which is not ideal starting your timed lap.

"I think, nevertheless, the second lap wasn't good enough. I lost a little bit today in the middle sector. It seemed to be okay all weekend and then when the circuit ramped up I wasn't able to go with it so I lost a little bit."

Vettel said he is confident he can get a good start from second on the grid and challenge Webber in the opening sector of the first lap.

"I think second is a very good position to start from and round here you never know because you've got a long straight after the start straight away. It could be interesting tomorrow."

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