F1: No Excuses As Vettel Fails To Make Q3

Formula 1

F1: No Excuses As Vettel Fails To Make Q3

Sebastian Vettel qualified a disappointing 11th in Belgium...

Adam Cooper | http://www.speedtv.com | Posted September 01, 2012 Francorchamps (BEL)

Sebastian Vettel struggled this season compared with 2010 and 2011. (Photo: Getty Images)

Sebastian Vettel failed to make it out of Q2 in Belgium despite reporting no particular problems with the car or his quick lap.

Vettel qualified 11th, but has been moved up a place by a gearbox penalty for teammate Mark Webber. However, he does have a free choice of tires for the start, and has more new sets available after not running in the final session.

“I think nothing went wrong, as in I didn’t do a mistake and there was no real problem with the car,” said Vettel. “Obviously, it hurts. We lost out by a little bit to get to Q3. If you have another run, then maybe it’s another story. At the time I was pretty happy with the lap I had. The time didn’t come.

“Obviously, tomorrow is a long race. At this track it’s definitely possible to overtake, so I think we were in a worse position on Saturday afternoon after the qualifying in Monaco, when I think we were ninth only. We’ll see what we can do tomorrow. The good news is there are no points today. We’ll try to have a good race. I think the pace in the race is fine; this morning seemed quite good.”

When asked by SPEED.com how he had been affected by the Friday washout, he didn’t use it as an excuse: “No problem. I think it was the same for everyone. This morning I was pretty happy, to be honest, and this afternoon it was just ... not coming towards us. The lap time was there, I think, but it just didn’t come. As I said, I was happy with my lap, and it’s not as if I had a big mistake or anything.

“I’m 11th, Pastor Maldonado was in 10tth [in Q2], only one hundredth quicker, and then he went nine-tenths quicker in Q3. For me, I don’t think it was possible to go nine-tenths quicker.”

Meanwhile, Vettel was fined 10,000 euros by the FIA for doing a practice start in the pits. Drivers are not allowed to do ‘hot’ starts and head down the pit lane to the exit – if they do one, they have to stop after a few meters and be pulled back to the pit box by the mechanics, which is standard practice.

“It was my mistake,” Vettel said. “We obviously practiced a pit stop, and you’re not supposed to leave your box and I left the box. I was probably trying to practice the pit stop a bit too hard.”

Adam Cooper notched up his 27th season as a racing journalist in 2011. He has written about F1 for SPEED.com since 2005. Follow him on Twitter.