Sebastian Vettel is looking forward to an exciting 53-lap Russian Grand Prix, despite incurring a five-place grid penalty after requiring a gearbox change earlier in the weekend.
Although Vettel ended qualifying in second position behind pole man Nico Rosberg, the German will instead start the race from seventh position once he has served his grid penalty.
Despite the setback Vettel remaining exceptionally positive, and will now start the race from the clean side of the grid and ahead of Lewis Hamilton in the other Mercedes.
"We're a bit closer starting on the clean side of the track. I think we can have a good race from there,” enthused Vettel after a relatively competitive qualifying session.
“It should be quite exciting. The car feels good. I think all weekend has been quite strong.
“We lost some time, but I think we made it up this morning so it shouldn't be an issue.”
Although Vettel is remaining positive ahead of the race, there’s no denying that Ferrari’s start to the season so far has been far from perfect, especially from a reliability perspective.
However, Vettel has insisted that he is far from frustrated as both he and Ferrari strive to continue closing the gap to Mercedes.
“[I’m] not frustrated at all,” continued Vettel.
“Obviously it's not nice if these things happen because they don't make your life easier. But equally it's part of racing. These things can happen.
“They didn't happen on purpose, they weren't planned. We're been pushing very hard to try and catch up which I think especially in race pace we've proven already this year.
“Obviously we haven’t had a properly clean race yet this year. Maybe we'll have one tomorrow, you never know, it's a long race.
“There's a lot of things that can happen. I think we have to wait and see.”
