Vettel 'regrets' missing out on crucial tow in Q3

This weekend was meant to be the weekend that got Ferrari's 2019 championship back on course, with the team enjoying a clear superiority throughout practice on Friday and Saturday morning.

But when it came to qualifying it was a different story, starting with Charles Leclerc's big accident at turn 8 during Q2 as the team gambled on sending their cars out on lower-grip medium tyres despite rapidly cooling conditions.

Sebastian Vettel also had a scary moment at the same spot. Although he kept his car out of the wall and made it into the final top ten pole shoot-out round, he found that the speed advantage he'd previously enjoyed over the Mercedes cars was suddenly not there.

• Bottas beats Hamilton to Baku pole after Leclerc crashes

Vettel ended up in third place on the grid, with Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton three tenths faster in Q3 against all the pre-session expectations.

“I don’t know if they stole it," vettel told Sky Sports F1's Paul di Resta immediately after the end of qualifying. “I think they were a bit quicker than us today.

"For me it started a bit slow, towards the end it was getting better but it was quite tricky, the session was very long, the sun was going down.”

Vettel speculated that not having another car to slipstream down the high-speed straights - as Bottas did on his final run - was a major factor in the outcome.

"It could have been a bit closer with someone in front," he said. “I had a good lap but I had no tow to close the lap so that cost a bit."

Asked what difference a tow made here, he replied: "It depends, up to half a second.

"Then it is always a compromise because if you are too close in the middle sector you lose out," he continued. “But I would say going with the other people, probably around three tenths."

With Leclerc already out of the session after his accident, Vettel's only option was to run in the pack of cars and hope to time his run to the driver in front to achieve the optimum gap.

Vettel timed his exit from pit lane to ensure he would emerge from pit lane right behind the two Silver Arrows. Only the two Mercedes - mischievously feigning to do a practice start - pulled over at the exit, and allowed Vettel to go out first instead!

On the plus side, it put him in clear air at the front of the field for the final run and meant there was no traffic to hold him up. But on the down side, it also meant that there was no helpful tow.

"The track was getting cooler," he explained when asked why he hadn't waited himself. "The car was more difficult to drive, and I prioritised to push on the out lap to have the tyres in the window when I started.

"Now I sort of regret I didn’t take the gamble on, but I think it was still probably the right call.”

“I am happy that we got sort of the maximum out [of the car]," he insisted. "But not happy overall from the team point of view.

"We were expecting to have a better session with Charles and myself. I think we thought we would be closer to the front.”

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