Sebastian Vettel admitted a mistake at the last corner cost him dearly during qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix as he prepares to line up eighth on the grid on Sunday.
Vettel qualified ninth but was promoted one position due to Romain Grosjean's grid penalty for using a new gearbox. It is his worst qualifying result of the season - with the exception of Canada where he was slowed by a technical problem - and he believes he could have qualified fifth or higher without the mistake.
"The lap was fine until the last corner when I went in a bit too deep and had a poor exit," he said. "I lost a lot of time, around two tenths, which wasn't enough for P3 but enough to be higher than P9. Costly mistake on a day like today so I am not happy with myself.
"It was disappointing considering I had a good feel throughout qualifying and the worst part for us was the last one as we only had one set of tyres due to the red flag earlier. The lap was fun until the last corner, but we lost too much time. On a day like today, it is very costly as it was very tight from P3 onwards. We were on the right end of it in Q2 and the wrong end in Q3."
The top eight cars in qualifying were Mercedes powered, but Vettel does not think that is a true reflection of the battle of the engine suppliers.
"I don't think it is down to that. I think we have made impressive progress on our side, I think our straight line speed is good and that is what makes me confident for the race tomorrow because it is a place you can overtake so we should be in the right place.
"I think we are quicker than the cars in front, so we will see how it works out. Surely the target is to make progress for both of us. It was a shame to lose one car with Kimi right at the beginning of Q2 but for both of us the target is to recover"
Asked if a podium finish is still the target, Vettel said: "Always. The last three days we have had surprisingly good weather, maybe for tomorrow it could be different. Some rain is forecast, but even without that we should have good pace and anything can happen. There is some potential of a chaotic start, it is not that chaotic for us, it looks like Hungary, so we will try to make a move early on. We have the whole race and I think we will be able to recover."