Vettel: Ferrari needs to be "sly as a fox" to score F1 points in Bahrain GP

Sebastian Vettel says Ferrari needs to be "sly as a fox" when it comes to its strategic calls with tyre degradation expected to play a big part in Sunday’s Bahrain Grand Prix.

Vettel narrowly missed out on a spot in Q3 but managed to out-qualify teammate Charles Leclerc for the second race running.

Reflecting on his final Q2 effort, Vettel said: "It was very tough and tight. I think sector two wasn't ideal, I was too close to George [Russell], maybe that didn't help, and I was struggling after the stop and go in the final sector to get the fronts really to work.

"Maybe there was a little bit more [time], so sector two was for sure not super clean. Overall, I think it's more or less where we belong this weekend. Tomorrow is the race, and in the race, it's not about one lap, so we'll see what we can do."

With tyre degradation expected to dominate Sunday’s race, Vettel says choosing the right strategy will be crucial to moving up the order.

"This track is very rough, very tough on tyres, and that will be the key tomorrow to manage those," Vettel added. "I think if we are sly as a fox, we have a good chance. If not, then it will be a long race.

"I still believe that there is a good chance to score some points."

It was the second race in succession that Leclerc has failed to make Q3 but the Monegasque driver was satisfied with the progress Ferrari had made since Friday practice.

"I’m a bit closer but still a bit disappointed obviously, P11 and P12 at the end is not that bad as we have free tyre choice," Leclerc added. "I don’t know how different we will be able to do compared to the others in terms of strategy but we at least have the freedom to think of something else, and yeah we are close to top 10 compared to yesterday that is a good step forward but I can’t hide that I’m a bit disappointed in not being in this top 10."