Vettel was enthusiastically prepared for the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix, and while he knew he still had a lot to learn about his new car, the Aston Martin, he was confident they could make progress to the time trial compared to free practice.
The German felt the car behaved better overall than in the free practice, he immediately felt good in it, so regrets that he failed to show this.
„There was still a lot left in it after the first nail, then I made a mistake in turn 11, ”Vettel said.
At the end of the timer, the cars crowded before they started their fast laps, so Vettel was unable to bring the tires to the right temperature – however it had to slow down in both the first and second sectors, first because of Nikita Mazepin and then his teammate Carlos Sainz.
“On the second nail there were many yellow flags, I couldn’t fix it, ”the German continued.
“The problem was that we had to go so slow, and so we could not bring the tires to the right temperature. We thought there would be chaos with so many cars, but no one thought it would be that bad. ”
“We should have taken better care, positioned better. But we are always smarter in retrospect. ”
“If I panicked, it wouldn’t help. I’m angry, of course because I know it wasn’t our fault. But we have to accept that now and do everything we can to prepare for tomorrow. ”
Vettel said he doesn’t expect an easy race at all as they still gather information about the car.
“We are still learning, trying to understand better,” he said. “Starting so much from behind makes things hard, but that’s it.”
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