Canadian GP: Sebastian Vettel stumped by disappointing quali but eyeing comeback in race

Sebastian Vettel said that he was at a loss as to why his Aston Martin car dropped off in terms of pace between free practice and qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix.

The German had been flying along all through the three practice sessions in Montreal, with him going fourth fastest in FP2 and then third fastest in FP3 earlier on on Saturday.

However, qualifying provided a big step back for him, with him complaining of poor balance with the rear of the car and, indeed, he was eliminated in Q1.

A real shame, then, given he had been looking good to finish inside the top 10 based on form and he said that he and the team were scratching their heads last night as they did not change too much in terms of the car’s set-up.

He said, though, that the overall pace this weekend has been good and that could still set up a good comeback drive later today:

“I do not know where our pace went.

“We did not change much between FP3 and qualifying – but we were too slow and we do not understand it. It is a pity, because we could have gone very well in these conditions.

“Given how the car felt out there, our lap times are not a surprise. The car was very difficult to drive – it was sliding and had a very poor rear end.

“We need to have a look at the data because something clearly did not work. Still, I am optimistic for tomorrow’s race. Today’s result puts us on the back foot, but we showed good pace in Friday practice, and we can come back from this.”