SEBASTIAN VETTEL: “IT WAS NOT THE BEST SESSION FOR ME”

Sebastian Vettel will start sixth on the grid for the United States Grand Prix but admitted it was not a great qualifying session for the Scuderia Ferrari driver.

Sebastian Vettel admitted that the qualifying session for the United States Grand Prix did not go well for him or his Scuderia Ferrari team after being forced to settle for sixth on the grid at the Circuit of the Americas.

The German was disheartened to the gap to those in front of him, with Vettel’s best Q3 lap 1.359 seconds down on Lewis Hamilton’s pole position time, and 0.237 seconds down on team-mate Kimi Raikkonen, who will start fifth.

“Qualifying was not so good, hopefully the race will go better,” said Vettel. “Surely we can try and look at different things, learn from today, go forward, and for sure we are not pleased with the gap to the cars ahead.

“It was not the best session for me: overall it was ok, the car felt fine, but in the end we were not just quick enough. For sure in Q3 I could have done a slightly better lap, but at the end of the day obviously we are missing a bit compared to the cars in front, so I think tomorrow could be a different day. Probably in my last lap I was a bit too aggressive.”

Vettel admits to being somewhat confused to why the team are not as competitive in the United States as they were last time out in Japan, and as such might need a clever strategy to get ahead of some of their rivals.

“There remains a bit of a question mark at this point, at least on why we were so competitive in fast corners in Suzuka and here we are missing out; but then again we are missing out across all sectors,” said Vettel. “For tomorrow we’ll see, there’s always a chance to outsmart the people but I think we have to react on the fly.

“The strategy is set for the beginning, in terms the tyres to start the race with, but we kept some new tyre sets, so we’ll see. It could be an interesting race: tyre degradation is always important, it could be playing a big role tomorrow.”

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F1: Lewis Hamilton Takes Pole Position at Belgium GP

Mercedes AMG Petronas was able to get back in the groove with another front-row lockout in qualifying for the 2015 Belgian Grand Prix. Today’s Grand Prix takes place from Spa-Francorchamps and has a start time of 8 a.m. ET, and can be watched online through free live stream via the link below.

It marked Hamilton’s 10th pole from 11 races this season, and with it, an unassailable lead in the race for the pole position trophy – a title which Rosberg won previous year.

With Ricciardo and Perez both pitting for new tyres after eight laps, Rosberg climbed into second place, eight seconds behind team-mate Hamilton, with Sebastian Vettel third for Ferrari.

It sent out an emphatic message to his Mercedes team-mate who left the track on Friday night believing he was “one step ahead” of Hamilton after dominating practice.

Hamilton set a new personal best time of 1m 54.315s on lap 25 to extend his advantage over Rosberg to more than five seconds.

Rosberg, who had led the championship at the same stage previous year, is 21 points behind Hamilton with nine races remaining including Sunday’s. “But as I said coming in to this weekend I want to get those pole positions and translate them in to wins, so hopefully today is the beginning of that”.

He added: “I have been working really hard on the starts to make sure I understood all the facts”. Hamilton ended the qualifying session yesterday in pole, “satisfied” with his performance, but admitted the gap between him and 2nd-placed teammate Nico had been ‘very, very small’.

They said the failure was caused by a puncture created by unidentified external debris.

“The car’s been feeling great on the circuit…”

“The problem is that we don’t really understand it. There are theories, but there is no real evidence”.

“I was never in position where I felt nervous”.

Ferrari suffered a nightmare session with Hungary Grand Prix victor Sebastian Vettel in ninth whileKimi Raikkonen’s auto came to a stop on the edge of the track in Q2.

Instead, Frenchman Romain Grosjean completed the podium for troubled Lotus.

Russian Red Bull driver Daniil Kvyat mounted an incredible comeback, ending in fourth place after being in seventh place going into the ultimate laps.

Bottas started third but also messed up his start and then had a drive-thru penalty when his team put the wrong tire on one of the wheels.

The McLaren duo Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button moved up from the back of the grid to take 13th and 14th, after massive starting penalties for engine changes, ahead of Manor pair Roberto Merhi and Will Stevens.

Lewis Hamilton wins in Spa as tyre blowout denies Sebastian Vettel podium

Lewis Hamilton won the Belgian Grand Prix with relative ease as Mercedes took a comfortable one-two victory and left the fighting to its rivals behind.

Drama unfolded behind the top two on the penultimate lap when Sebastian Vettel, who was on a one-stop strategy, suffered a right-rear tyre blowout on the Kemmel Straight. It was the second blowout of the weekend after Rosberg suffered a tyre failure in Friday practice, but it is not yet clear if the two are in any way related. Vettel was attempting to hold off Romain Grosjean's Lotus at the time, who was on a more conventional two-stop strategy and tyres that were eight laps younger. The tyre failure allowed Grosjean and Lotus onto the podium for the first time since the US Grand Prix in 2013, but infuriated Vettel who slumped to 12th as a result.The victory gives Hamilton a 28-point lead in the drivers' standings, enough to retire from the next race and retain the top spot even if Rosberg wins. Hamilton never looked under serious pressure as he executed a perfect two-stop strategy and kept Rosberg, who dropped to fifth at the start, comfortably behind throughout.

At the start, Rosberg made a slow getaway from the front row and was immediately swamped at the first corner as Hamilton led on the run down to Eau Rouge. Sergio Perez made a brilliant start from fourth to second and drew alongside Hamilton as the pair closed on the chicane at Les Combes. Perez had a look around the outside of Hamilton, but backed out as soon as the Mercedes claimed the apex in order to retain second place. Vettel also made a strong start from eighth to move up to fifth by the second lap as Valtteri Bottas lost out and fell to sixth.

The first pit stops occurred on lap seven, shuffling Rosberg up to second, which he would retain for the rest of the race. Bottas' race went from bad to worse at his first pit stop after his team fitted one medium tyre and three softs. The mistake saw the Williams driver penalised with a drive-through penalty from which he never really recovered as he went on to finish ninth.

Rosberg pitted on lap 12 and Hamilton on lap 13, with Rosberg emerging 7.5s behind his team-mate. He started to close the gap, but Hamilton remained unflustered and was able to answer Rosberg's charge when the gap narrowed to four seconds. Grosjean was making moves already as he fashioned two passes at Les Combes, one on Daniel Ricciardo and one on Perez to take third. The gap between the Mercedes drivers remained stable until a virtual safety car (VSC) was deployed on lap 20 when Ricciardo's Red Bull lost power in the final chicane and stopped on the pit straight.

The VSC prompted a flurry of pit stops for Grosjean, Felipe Massa, Kimi Raikkonen, Max Verstappen and Bottas, while Vettel opted to stay out and moved up to third place. The VSC also saw Rosberg close to within 2.2s of Hamilton when the race restarted, but once again Hamilton was equal to the challenge and quickly stretched his lead again.

Ferrari opted to keep Vettel out on his ageing medium tyres until the end of the race in the hope he could retain third place from the drivers on fresher tyres behind. The plan was working until lap 42 when his right rear tyre unravelled and exploded on the Kemmel Straight. The failure instantly brought an end to Vettel's chances, while Grosjean came over the hill at Raidillon to be faced by flailing rubber and a quick promotion to third place.

Outside the top three, Daniil Kvyat resisted the urge to pit under the VSC and instead made his second pit stop six laps later and took on on soft tyres. The decision gave him an advantage against those who had stopped under the VSC and in the final few laps he carved his way through the order to finish fourth.

Perez did well to hold onto fifth ahead of Massa, Raikkonen and Verstappen, who had a shot at seventh on the final lap but ran deep at Les Combes trying to overtake the Ferrari ahead. Bottas and Marcus Ericsson took the final points on offer in ninth and tenth.