Vettel: Leclerc in "another league" in Portuguese GP F1 qualifying

Sebastian Vettel has described Ferrari F1 teammate Charles Leclerc as in "another league" after being comprehensively beaten in qualifying for the Portuguese Grand Prix.

Vettel could only manage 15th in qualifying, while Leclerc is set to start the race in fourth.

When asked about Leclerc’s sizeable performance advantage in qualifying, Vettel conceded there was nothing more he could do to get more out of his Ferrari.  

"It's not just beating, it's like another league," Vettel told Sky Germany Well, yeah, I try everything I can. I think the laps I make, which I am content with are still too slow. At the moment there is nothing more I can do, than just getting everything out of myself and the car."

Vettel attempted to make it into Q3 on the medium tyres, which he feels was the correct decision despite setting a lap in Q1 which was good enough to make the top ten shootout on the softs.

"I actually had a pretty good feeling after the first try," he said. "But in the second run, the tyres didn't get up to temperature at all. I locked a wheel right at Turn 3 and then the lap was already messed up."

"I thought that with the medium I could easily repeat the time of Q1. That was the target, but it wasn't that easy. I've been struggling a bit with the soft tyres all weekend.

"For me, the tyres quickly let go and we got graining. The medium tyre seemed to be more durable. In the first attempt, I had a good feeling and it was a good lap. Then I thought the time should be easy. But I couldn't get the tyres to work."