Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsFerrari

Vettel: Ferrari has pace to climb through field

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Sebastian Vettel believes Ferrari has the pace to climb through the field in this afternoon's Belgian Grand Prix.

The four-time world champion will start from eighth after a disappointing qualifying session on Saturday, with team-mate Kimi Raikkonen 12th having stopped on track in Q2. While Mercedes-powered cars proved dominant over one lap, Vettel says Ferrari is more competitive than it appeared on Saturday.

"I think we have made impressive progress on our side," Vettel said. "I think our straight line speed is good and that is what makes me confident for the race because it is a place you can overtake so we should be in the right place.

"I think we are quicker than the cars in front, so we will see how it works out. Surely the target is to make progress for both of us. It was a shame to lose one car with Kimi right at the beginning of Q2 but for both of us the target is to recover."

Asked if the podium is still the target, Vettel replied: "Always.

"The last three days we have had surprisingly good weather, maybe [today] it could be different. Some rain is forecast, but even without that we should have good pace and anything can happen. There is some potential of a chaotic start, it is not that chaotic for us, it looks like Hungary, so we will try to make a move early on. We have the whole race and I think we will be able to recover."

Click here for a gallery of the biggest crashes at Spa-Francorchamps

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.