Sebastian Vettel rues missed chance to fight for pole in Austria amid Hamilton penalty. Sebastian Vettel rues missed chance to fight for pole in Austria amid Hamilton penalty .

Scuderia Ferrari German driver Sebastian Vettel admitted he was frustrated he couldn’t participate in Q3 after a pneumatic problem sidelined his Ferrari halfway through qualifying.

“The car was broken so we couldn’t fire it up and go,” Vettel explained after qualifying. “We lost parts of Q2 and then Q3 completely.

“We fairly quickly made the decision to change but it’s not so easy. We had to, obviously, take the bodywork off, it’s not too easy. The guys did everything they could but we couldn’t do it in time.”

Sebastian Vettel qualified tenth but will move up to ninth following Kevin Magnussen’s penalty. “Obviously it’s frustrating but there’s nothing you can do inside the car,” he said.

“It’s nobody’s fault, for sure we need to understand what happened and make sure it doesn’t happen again but at that time nobody’s fault. We tried everything to fix it.

“I knew if we fixed it mostly likely there would be one run. So I was trying to focus solely on that. But it didn’t happen.”

However Sebastian Vettel said he was pleased to see team mate Charles Leclerc take pole position.

“At least, as much of a pain it is, it’s good to see the other car came through and got pole. Happy for the team, obviously not happy for my side.” – he concluded.