Sebastian Vettel says he was “surprised” by Ferrari’s deficit to Mercedes during qualifying in Russia, and believes the team achieved its “full potential” in the session.
Ferrari and Mercedes have fought at the front of the field in Formula 1 this season, but Mercedes held a comfortably advantage through the second and third practice sessions at Sochi.
Mercedes preserved its position through the three-part qualifying session on Saturday as Valtteri Bottas beat Lewis Hamilton to pole, with Vettel a distant third.
Vettel wound up over half a second adrift of Bottas and faced a gap of over four-tenths to title rival Hamilton, who in turn abandoned his final Q3 push lap when he erred through Turn 7.
“It’s been a bit of a tricky one for us,” said Vettel.
“We didn’t have the pace by quite a big gap, which is a surprise but it is like this and we will fight as much as we can tomorrow.
“To be honest, I was pretty happy. I think the car was pretty good. The balance was pretty good. I think it peaked in Q3 just the way it should so I think we got everything we could.
“I had a tiny bit of a mistake because I knew I had half a second to find, not just a couple of hundredths, so should have been two-tenths up on the last lap – but yeah, I was pretty happy with the car.
“It’s not like there’s a big issue with car balance. I think we reached out full potential today.”
Vettel last year took pole in Russia but was overhauled by third-placed starter Bottas on the long drag down to Turn 2.
With their positions reversed on the grid this season, Vettel joked that he is hoping to emulate the Finn’s 2017 antics on the opening lap.
“I reminded him of what happened here last year,” said Vettel.
“Maybe we can turn it around; that would be nice. I think it depends on the start, the initial jump, that’s important.
“Then I think you know where you are and then we see what we can do for the first corner but after that, as I said, it’s a long race. Tricky one, but for sure if there’s a gap we’ll go for it.”
Vettel’s Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen will start the race from fourth.
