F1 News, Reports and Race Results

Vettel believes Ferrari has the pace to win in Canada

Sebastian Vettel admitted that Ferrari simply didn't have what it took to beat Lewis Hamilton to pole position in Canada.

But despite being over three tenths off Hamilton's track record time at the end of Q3, Vettel believes that he still has a chance when it comes to the race.

"I think we have," Vettel said when asked if he felt he had the race pace to win Sunday's Grand Prix. "The car was very good, I was happy this morning, and we should be good in the race."

Vettel added that he wasn't surprised to see their rivals back up to speed after struggling somewhat in Monaco.

"I think we always expected Mercedes to be very quick, especially in the last segment," he said.

Record-setting lap puts Hamilton on pole in Canada

"Lewis did a better job today and got a good lap. He was the better man today."

Even so, Vettel insisted that he could have been a lot closer to Hamilton in qualifying if he'd got the perfect lap.

"I thought we could step it up and find a bit of time," he said. "I'm not so happy with the last run I had in qualifying."

Vettel's first run saw him run wide at the hairpin, costing him vital tenths of a second. It also put him slightly on the back foot for the rest of the round.

"I would have loved to repeat the second run and just find a little bit. But I probably pushed a little bit too hard.

"I lost a bit into Turn 2, and then lost two tenths out of the second corner. Then I knew I had to catch up, which I did until the end of the lap."

Vettel's team mate Kimi Räikkönen, will start immediately behind him on the grid from fourth place. The second Ferrari was eight-tenths off Hamilton's benchmark in Q3.

Despite coming up short, Vettel said it had been an enjoyable time on Saturday.

"It was a good qualifying session," he said. "Getting better at the end. At the beginning I was struggling a bit to find the rhythm. But great atmosphere, people cheering.

The Mercedes drivers used two laps to prepare their ultrasoft tyres before going for a timed lap. By contrast, Vettel did one run before starting a flier.

"I was confident to go with the first lap," he insisted. "You saw the laptimes getting better. I was confident we made the right call."

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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.