Sebastian Vettel described himself as feeling “pretty empty, very bitter and disappointed” in the wake of Ferrari’s disastrous German Grand Prix qualifying session.
Vettel led the way through FP1 and was second- and third-quickest respectively in the following practice sessions, as Ferrari showed strong pace.
But he was unable to take part in qualifying after he suffered a loss of power on his out lap in Q1.
Ferrari tried to repair the problem, diagnosed as an air flow problem to the turbo, but was unable to do so, leaving Vettel out of contention.
It means he will start his home race from the back of the 20-car grid.
“I’m pretty empty, obviously very bitter and disappointed, especially here,” said Vettel.
“Especially because the car is good. I had a good feeling yesterday, better this morning, didn’t put everything together so I thought we have a really good chance.
“But now I’m not having any chance so I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”
Vettel says Ferrari must understand the cause of the problem, which is believed to be similar to the setback that compromised his qualifying session two rounds ago in Austria.
“I’m sure there’s a reason for what happened so obviously it’s the worst possible timing but it is what it is,” he said.
“We certainly didn’t want that to happen, we need to understand what it was and make sure that it never happens again, but nothing we can do now.”
