Vettel 'couldn't improve enough to be a threat in qualifying'

Sebastian Vettel had to concede that he wasn't able to improve on his Friday performance by enough to be a serious threat to the two Mercedes drivers in qualifying for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Vettel had promised that Ferrari would show better pace than they had in the previous day's practice, and he was true to his word. He was fastest of anyone in the first round of qualifying on Saturday evening.

But Lewis Hamilton made a quantum leap in Q2, setting a new track record despite running on ultrasoft tyres. And when Mercedes switched to hypers for the final round, Hamilton and Bottas both went even quicker.

Vettel improved as well - buy not by enough to stop Mercedes from locking out the front row of the grid for the seventh time this season.

• Hamilton and Bottas deliver final Mercedes lock-out of 2018

“To be honest I enjoyed the session," Vettel said afterwards. "I did improve, I think the track ramped up, but not enough to be a threat.

“I would have liked to get on the front row but it’s not the case."

Asked whether he had been expecting the jump in pace from the two Silver Arrows cars, he admitted: "[It was] no surprise. They looked very competitive all weekend."

Vettel certainly looked like he was doing everything he could to catch his rivals during the session, but admitted it had been a struggle.

“I was happy in our session and happy [but] qualifying was a bit up and down,” he admitted. "Obviously in Q1 I thought it was really tight, so maybe we had a word to say.

"In Q2 I think Lewis put in a really strong lap in on the harder tyres and I thought, 'It's going to be difficult!'

"And the first round in Q3 I had a really good lap and it was very close again, but they must have still had some cushion for the last run.

“We tried everything and gave it everything we have," he continued. “It’s a long lap so there’s a lot of lap time to be found if everything works out."

Despite missing out in qualifying, Vettel firmly believes that there is everything to play for on Sunday night in the final race of the season.

“I said to the guys tomorrow we will fight as hard as we can, anything can happen," he said. "I'm quite confident _ i think it's going to be a long race, so it should be good fun."

At times during a hard-fought 2018 title campaign, there's been moments of friction between Vettel and Hamilton.

But now the titles have been decided, the pressure is off and normal diplomatic relations have been resumed between the pair.

"Obviously one thing happens on the track, but off track I don't see the reason why you can't talk with each other and joke with one another.

"I enjoyed [the season] - obviously it didn't go my way, so I guess he enjoyed it a little more!" he added.

"Looking forward to tomorrow, getting in the car for the last time this year and challenging these guys, giving it everything we have."

Vettel will start the race from third place alongside his team mate Kimi Raikkonen in fourth.

"It was a solid qualifying session and I think there was nothing wrong with the car today, nothing to complain about," said the Finn after his final qualifying run for Ferrari.

"In fact, it worked pretty well, we were only lacking a bit of speed especially in Sector 3; that’s where we were losing the most and it has been like that for all the week end.

"Our competitors were probably playing around a bit in the first part of the session, then in the end the margin was bigger.

"As for tomorrow, I can only say that we are going to do our best. We will start the race on the ultrasoft tyres, which is the choice all the top teams have made.

"We hadn’t tested that kind of compound before today, and in terms of race pace, we have some figures from Friday’s long runs, but practice is another story from the race itself and usually, on Sunday, the gaps close up a little bit."

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