Sebastian Vettel says there is no pattern to his recent one-lap defeats to Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc, insisting his own race pace has never been a problem.
Vettel out-qualified Leclerc in five of the opening six rounds of 2019, taking pole in Canada, but since then has yet to finish ahead of his team-mate on Saturday.
That involves a streak of nine grands prix, during which spell Leclerc has taken five pole positions, including all of the last four.
Leclerc claimed pole position on Saturday in Russia while Vettel was left down in third place, having been edged off the front-row of the grid by Lewis Hamilton.
“Obviously in qualifying here and there,” he said when asked about his deficit to Leclerc.
“I think we didn’t have the best sessions on my side. I think obviously today Charles was faster so it’s pretty easy to see where he’s faster but it’s a little bit here and there.
“I don’t think there’s any pattern standing out, saying that he’s always faster in the same type of corner.
“As I said, obviously the last couple of races was closer than maybe it looked on the result so we will see what happens tomorrow.
“Usually come race day I’m getting more and more confident in the car and pace has never been a problem in the race so we will see what happens.”
On his qualifying performance, and potential for Sunday’s race, Vettel said: “I was quite happy in general. Obviously a bit disruptive with Q1 where we got a bit unfortunate with yellow flags and stuff.
“I thought by the time we got to Q3 that was fine. I think overall I was pretty happy with the car. I just felt that there was more in the car that, yeah, I couldn’t get to.
“Nevertheless, I think tomorrow is a long race. I think we have good pace for the race. It will be very interesting with the Mercedes on different tyres to start with, so let’s see what happens.”
