Formula 1

Sebastian Vettel admits to mistake on final qualifying run

Published May. 27, 2017 3:26 p.m. ET

Adam Cooper

Sebastian Vettel admits that a mistake when it mattered cost him his shot at pole position in Monaco – but the Ferrari driver was happy to congratulate Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikkonen for earning the top spot.

Vettel was happy with his car, but just couldn’t quite get his lap together.

“Well done to Kimi, I think he had a better end obviously,” said Vettel. “I think the car was fine. It was really nice to drive. I think I probably pushed a little bit too hard on the first lap in Q3. Went wide in Turn 5. Second attempt again, went a little bit deep, so the second sector, I was probably a bit too greedy, wanted a bit too much and lost a little bit the car.

“I’m sure if you ask anyone after quali, we all have the feeling that there’s always more. Bottom line: it’s a great result for the team. Not as happy as I could have been but, as I said, well done to Kimi.”

Vettel said he’s not worried about something going awry between the two teammates at the start.

“I think we have done enough races so we know what to do normally in the first corner. We’re here to race, we’re here to race each other. The start is important here, the first corner is important, the race is important! The start is the beginning of the race, but not the end, so we’ll see. We know that pole is important in Monaco, so we’ll see what happens.

“We all want to do the best race we can, I think the priority for tomorrow. For the start, I don’t know, you do your start and then you see what the others are doing and then you see where you find yourself so. It’s very simple. You try to do your best and then you see. As we know, it’s not a long way to turn one but after that we have a very long race here so there are a lot of things that can happen.”

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