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Sebastian Vettel has admitted that he very nearly lost his car on his lap that secured him pole position. The German pipped Max Verstappen in the final moments of the session to take his 50th career pole position with a lap time of 1:16.488.
Vettel will need a lot of luck if he has any chance of securing his fifth world championship this season, as there is now a monumental 66-point gap to title rival Lewis Hamilton. Hamilton himself couldn't challenge Vettel on Saturday, and will line-up from third on the grid.
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Speaking about his milestone pole position, Vettel said: "It was quite a lap I have to say, I’m really, really happy. It’s very difficult here, very slippery, it’s difficult to get everything in one lap. I had a little bit [of an advantage] in the first sector, I managed to get that right, so I had a good start.
"Then I had a bit of a moment at Turn 6, and I nearly lost it there, I had to go down to first gear, but I didn’t lose any time," he admitted. "Then I knew in the last sector if I could just keep it clean and cross the line it should be enough, and it was."
Vettel vows to fight hard during tomorrow's Grand Prix but is aware that he doesn't have much control over his world championship hopes. With it being almost three months since Vettel and Ferrari have won a race, the 30-year-old thinks the Scuderia is due a strong result.
"Tomorrow we’ll see, it’s not as much in my control as I would like it to be, so it depends what Lewis is doing," added Vettel. "For us we’ll go all out, we’ll attack, and we’ll see what we can do. We deserve a good result, Ferrari deserves a good result, let’s see what we can do tomorrow."
Azerbaijan Grand Prix
C. Sainz jr
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Replies (2)
Login to replyboudy
Posts: 1,168
Not sure if i agree that they deserve a good result. Would like to see a great battle between hamilton and vettel. Will max win again?
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
With some luck, though I pretty much expect him to be a temporary hinderance for whomever he gets in front of more than anything else. Mexico's GP generally favour high top speeds, so it should in theory benefit all the Mercedes teams. Why the grid looks the way it does is beyond me.