• Spanish Grand Prix - Qualifying

Vettel remains optimistic for race

Sebastian Vettel will have to rally from eighth on the grid © Sutton Images

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• News:
• 'We got caught with our pants down' - Webber
  

• Race:
• Spanish Grand Prix

• Championship:
• FIA Formula One World Championship

• Drivers:
• Sebastian Vettel

• Teams:
• Red Bull

Sebastian Vettel remained optimistic about his race chances despite qualifying in eighth for the Spanish Grand Prix.

Vettel was forced to use an extra set of soft rubber in order to make the top ten shootout and preferred to abort his lap in Q3 in order to conserve his tyres for race strategy.

"Nothing is wrong we just decided to abort the lap to have a free choice of tyres tomorrow," said Vettel. "If I had finished the lap we would have had to start on the soft tyres. It was close between Nico and myself which was the only one we were battling with in Q3 unfortunately, the rest seemed too far away and we didn't have the speed of the car.

"We felt pretty happy all the way into qualifying but straight into the first session really struggling to find the same balance that I had before so Q2 on the first run it was crucial that I didn't manage to pull one out to make it to Q3 so we had to go again and burn our last new set of tyres in Q2. Therefore it was clear that we hadn't got a shot in Q3 but all in all as I said you have to respect the fact that we were simply not quick enough so I think where we are now is the optimum."

Despite starting from lower down than he is accustomed, Vettel is confident he can make significant inroads during the race proper with a successful strategy.

"We saved a couple of new tyres and will go there. I think in the end we were more or less were we expected to be but we weren't able to make that step from practice that the others were able to make. You have to respect the fact that they were simply quicker. Nevertheless I am confident for the race and always thought we had a good race car and we have a couple of new sets which did prove successful for some people previously so hopefully it's our turn tomorrow."

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