Sebastian Vettel does not think he could have matched Daniel Ricciardo's pole position lap at Monaco.
Ricciardo has utterly dominated track action at Monaco this week, topping all three practice sessions and then set a new Monte Carlo track record in Q3. Vettel settled for second position, 0.4s behind the Australian driver.
The four-time world champion doubts a perfect lap would have been enough to top the session.
"I'm pretty happy I guess," he said. "There's always a feeling that there's a little bit but I don't think there was a threat to Daniel's time today. I think we can look back and think 'here, there', especially around this place, but well done to Daniel, he pulled a good qualifying session.
"[We were] playing around with the set up quite a bit, trying to squeeze out everything because we knew we had to if we wanted to have a front row or pole. So I think we put ourselves into this position. I think Daniel was strong yesterday, he was strong this morning. I think we got as close as we could."
Ferrari failed to make the podium in Spain and Vettel was pleased to see the team show good pace around the tight confines of Monte Carlo.
"I think it was expected that Red Bull would be quick here. I think they have a strong car, they have more downforce than everybody else. I think in terms of track efficiency they were one of the best.
"So this track, we knew that they would be strong. Other tracks we need to look at ourselves.
"I think in Barcelona we knew that we weren't where we wanted to be, moving forward Canada will be different again. We'll see but the thing is for us we have the potential in the car and we need to make sure we unleash it. We have to improve."