Sebastian Vettel couldn’t explain the reason behind his drop in pace during the final top-ten shoot-out for pole position on Saturday.
The Red Bull driver looked in prime position to fight for the top spot after topping all three practice sessions before trading fastest laps with McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton in both Q1 and Q2.
However, when it came to the shoot-out, Vettel was unable to match the McLaren, nor could he equal or better his previous laps.
“It’s hard to say what happened,” explained the German. “I was happy until the end of Q2, but then in Q3 we weren’t able to go with the track and improve.
“In Q3 I couldn’t feel the grip so well and convert it to the lap time.”
He starts from third behind Hamilton and Williams’s Pastor Maldonado.
“The most important day is tomorrow and we have got pace in the car,” he added. “We have been competitive this weekend and our target is to have a good race tomorrow; P3 is still a good place to start from.”
His team-mate Mark Webber starts seventh after a disappointing session in which the Australian expected more.
“We expected to be higher than that,” he said. “It was a tricky session and on every run the car felt a bit different. We didn’t have the rear-grip that we had in the other sessions; normally the super soft tyres give us a certain balance, but it was difficult to chase it in that session. It’s disappointing to be seventh, but it’s a long race tomorrow and we have a chance to get something from it.”
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