SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, Belgium -- Sebastian Vettel admitted Ferrari lost its cool during qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix, leaving him second on the grid behind championship rival Lewis Hamilton.
Rain ahead of the final session of qualifying threw a curve ball at the teams and forced the drivers to switch to intermediate tyres after a single out-lap on slicks. Instead of the two flying laps they had planned, team's had to adapt and either refuel in the pits before running to the end of the session or go straight back out for a lap on low fuel in the hope that the conditions would worsen later on.
Ferrari opted to refuel Vettel -- which turned out to be the correct decision as conditions improved towards the end of Q3 and Vettel's times improved -- but he said the process of getting to those quick laps was far from straightforward.
"I think we had a wobble, I guess everybody had in these conditions," he said. "It was just not as calm as it could've been. Yeah, after that, well I mean looking back it's always very easy in these sessions [with the benefit of hindsight], but the lap that mattered was the last one - before that was nearly irrelevant other than keeping your tyres warm.
"But that you don't know, you don't know whether the rain increases again. In the laps I had before, I couldn't close also due to traffic, so I knew that if I close on them then the next lap will be compromised then the next lap could be drier, so what do you do? As I said it didn't feel like I got everything out for various reasons, therefore it was a very scrappy session.
"You saw also the others not putting enough fuel for the end, so it can be a lot worse."
Vettel also revealed that he was down on power because he had not fully recharged his car's hybrid system ahead of his final flying lap.
"I think the way we set up normally it was fine to run until the end but I was surprised with myself when I crossed the line and saw that the battery was quite low, which was very costly.
"In the end we should've managed better as a team, but as I said, in these conditions it could've been a red flag in the last lap and then it doesn't matter, I always trying to open a gap in the last sector last corner, and slow down to charge the car -- but obviously it wasn't enough at the end. We got caught out."
Q2 saw Vettel set a new track record before the rain came, and he looked set to seciure pole position had the conditions remained dry.
"It wasn't a nice ending to a great qualifying up to that point -- the circuit is very exciting with these cars. Even in the damp conditions in the end quite impressive. You do Eau Rouge and you don't have to downshift and you do it in eighth gear, it was flat even if it's damp and you're on intermediates so great fun.
"But obviously not very rewarding when you know that you could've done a bit better. We start second now which puts us in a good place, tomorrow is a long race, so it should be good fun."