Sebastian Vettel was left ruing a mistake at the final chicane during the final part of qualifying that cost him pole position for the Spanish Grand Prix by just 0.051 seconds.
There were fears the championship leader was not going to make it out on track for qualifying, this was down to having his power unit changed in-between FP3 and the start of Q1.
When asked by ESPN if the mistake had cost him a shot at pole position, Vettel said: “I’m afraid it was, yeah! I’ve been coming here a long time and done so many laps but still, the last chicane is the tricky one for me.
“First Q3 run I wasn’t entirely happy, I knew there was more, so the second one was really good up until that final chicane. It was really close, well done to Lewis.”
Having never taken a pole position at the Barcelona circuit in his career, even throughout his dominant Red Bull years, the German feels he has always struggled with that final chicane.
“I think I was caught out a bit in the last sector…” he added.
“Mark Webber taught me lessons over the years and I still haven’t got it so I don’t know, I think I need to go back to school, sit down and have a look but still the last chicane is a bit tricky.”
Vettel was also extremely grateful to his team after the rush that led to his Ferrari having to be rapidly repaired before qualifying, with the team even borrowing mechanics from his team-mate Kimi Raikkonen’s car.
“Unbelievable, they did an engine change in sub-two hours,” Vettel added.
“If you ever see the car stripped there’s a lot of bits and bobs that need to be reconnected so it’s a miracle they got me out. Would have been nice to get them the pole but hopefully we can do well tomorrow.
“Quite funny at one point when one car on one side of the garage was one or two mechanics, while the other one was completely crowded like bees hovering around the car so I think great effort so big thanks.”
