AUSTIN, Texas -- He may have missed out on beating Lewis Hamilton by 0.061s and be facing a three-place grid drop to fifth on the grid, but Sebastian Vettel said he was positively surprised by his qualifying performance at the U.S. Grand Prix.
After struggling for pace at the last three rounds of the season, Vettel's championship hopes hang by a thread ahead of Sunday's race in Austin. He has to finish within eight points of Hamilton to stand any chance of keeping his championship chances alive, meaning he must improve to second on Sunday if Hamilton wins the race from his pole position starting position.
Despite the frustration of missing out on pole position, which would have seen him start fourth on the grid once his penalty is applied, Vettel said there were positives to take from Austin.
"I think if the gap is less than a tenth then you have to think there was probably a little bit left in the car," Vettel said of the gap to Hamilton. "But I was pretty happy with the laps that I had to be honest.
"Today has been a positive surprise I guess to see how competitive we have been today given how far we've been behind for the last two races. There are some positives but if you are that close you probably want to be ahead."
Vettel incurred a three-place grid penalty on Friday when he was caught speeding under red flags in the opening practice session. After initially showing frustration at the ruling, he has now accepted the penalty and said Ferrari made a step forward with its car this weekend by rolling back on a series of recent developments that did not offer the performance gains the team had hoped for.
"I can't change the penalty now obviously, it is what it is. But, yes, we went back with our car quite a long way and it seems to perform better now."