• Singapore Grand Prix - Qualifying

Vettel unable to explain lack of pace in Q3

Sebastian Vettel: "In Q3 we just couldn't pick up the speed" © Sutton Images

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• Race:
• Singapore Grand Prix

• Drivers:
• Sebastian Vettel

• Teams:
• Red Bull

Sebastian Vettel was at a loss to explain the lack of pace he experienced in the final session of qualifying for the Singapore Grand Prix as his bid for pole position appeared to fall apart in Q3.

Vettel had been very close to Lewis Hamilton, who went on to take pole position, throughout the weekend but finished the final qualifying session nearly 0.6s off the pace. He also failed to match his own time from Q2 in the final session and could not explain the sudden drop in performance.

"I don't know why to be honest," he said. "I think the speed was there but we were not able to really improve. In Q2 I got the lap in reasonably safe, I was a little bit off Lewis but I was confident I could go a little bit quicker, somewhere in the 1:46 region. I think the pace was there to do better than what we did in Q2 but in Q3 we just couldn't pick up the speed and in the end I was even struggling to repeat the lap I did in the beginning.

"In the end it's a bit disappointing but I think the speed is there and we have been competitive throughout the weekend. The race here I think is very long and there are a lot of things that can happen with the safety car and it's important to be in the right place at the right time and then we go from there."

Vettel retired from the last grand prix with an alternator failure, and while he does not think it will happen again, he said there were no guarantees.

"It's hard to get a guarantee on anything in life. So far we have not had any problems or signs. Monza was a different story because obviously we had a failure on Saturday and Sunday. Today there have been no failures and hopefully tomorrow we will be fine as well. So far no concerns."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.