Vettel ‘as close as we could be’ to Ricciardo, Red Bull

Sebastian Vettel says a front row start alongside pole-sitter Daniel Ricciardo in the Red Bull is “as close as we could be” for Ferrari after missing out by two-tenths of a second in qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix.

With Verstappen forced out of qualifying after a heavy crash towards the end of FP3 it saw one front-running Red Bull out of action but Vettel was unable to stop Ricciardo from storming to pole position with a new track record of 1m 10.810s.

Vettel saw off Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes to take second place in qualifying but concedes Ferrari were unable to bridge the performance gap to Red Bull in the vital qualifying session in Monaco.

“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,” Vettel said. “I think we got as close as we could be.

“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.

“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.”

Vettel will still have the opportunity to cut into Hamilton’s 17-point lead in the F1 standings after suffering a frustrating result in Spain last time out.