Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel says he “chickened” out on the brakes at the last corner during qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix, as he battled for pole position against Mercedes rival Lewis Hamilton.
The Ferrari driver missed out on pole position at the Shanghai International Circuit by less than two tenths of a second, but secured a spot on the front row.
However, Valtteri Bottas was just 0.001 seconds behind in third, with Ferrari and Mercedes proving to be closely matched once again.
Vettel was happy with second on the grid but admitted he braked too early at the final corner, losing some time on his last lap.
“We see tomorrow how important it was,” he explained. “Obviously, it was a nice session, I enjoyed a lot.
“I think I would have enjoyed it more if it’d been quicker at the end. The last corner, maybe I lost a bit and chickened onto the brakes too soon.
“I was very close with Valtteri [Bottas], so a good job we just got enough margin to make it to the front row.”
Looking ahead to the Chinese GP, Vettel has confidence in the race pace of the SF70H: “I think our car is strong no matter what, it obviously depends what these guys [Mercedes] are doing.
“I think we can still improve, so let’s see what the race will be like, conditions I think will be quite different.”
