26/08/2017
NEWS STORY
Shortly after the announcement of his contract extension for another three years, Sebastian Vettel was able to put up a strong challenge for pole position, ending up with second place on the grid.
His team-mate Kimi Raikkonen paid the price for a mistake in his last run, after having been consistently quick throughout the weekend, and had to settle for P4. Having aborted his lap, he helped Seb's final effort by giving him a tow through the last sector of the track.
Sebastian Vettel: "I had a very good feeling already in Q1. During Q2, the main task was to get through and then in Q3 I was just about ok with the first run, but struggling a bit. However, my last run was better. I am happy with today's result. I think we achieved something that some people didn't expect from us. The pace was very good and I am really looking forward to tomorrow. It will be a long race with a lot of laps and a long track where more or less everyone has had problems with the tires during the weekend.
"As for the extension of my contract with Ferrari, I am very happy for that. I love this team. Two years ago we said we wanted to get back on top and I think we are on the right road. We aren't where we want to be yet, but we are striving for the top. I am very happy we keep working together. I want to achieve a lot with Ferrari and think it's the same on the other side. And I want to keep racing in red!"
An unexpected vibration issue plagued Kimi's session this afternoon, so at the end he was obviously less satisfied with his day, but still encouraged by the car's pace.
Kimi Raikkonen: "It was a messy qualifying: all the way through the session I had some vibrations in the car that kept coming and going. It's hard to know how much they affected the lap time, but for sure it did not help. It's very disappointing because so far the weekend had gone very smoothly. I felt we had all the tools to do well, the car was good and we had the speed. In the last run I was off to a good start, but then I started struggling with the tire temperatures and made a mistake, got sideways at turn 9 and it was pretty much the end of it. Fourth position is not a disaster but it is far from what I wanted. It's unfortunate, wrong time wrong place, but tomorrow is another day. It's going to be quite tricky with the tires for everybody: hopefully we'll have a straightforward race and make the right decisions."
Check out our Saturday gallery from Spa, here.