Pace of rivals surprises Vettel

Sebastian Vettel admits he was surprised by the pace of the rest of the field in the final part of qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix as Ferrari struggled in the wet.

Having looked competitive all weekend, Ferrari was unable to match the likes of Mercedes, Red Bull and even Williams and Force India as Vettel finished Q3 in eighth place, one position behind teammate Kimi Raikkonen. Although penalties for the Red Bull drivers will promote the Ferraris to the third row – behind Lewis Hamilton, Lance Stroll, Esteban Ocon and Valtteri Bottas – Vettel was left perplexed by the lack of pace.

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"I'm that surprised by how quick the others went," Vettel said. "So, clearly we couldn't go the same pace. Yeah, at this stage we don't know why I'm sure there are a couple of things we will look into and try understand. Nevertheless, I think it was an important day. Obviously something didn't work, didn't come together. Now it is what it is, we'll see what we can do tomorrow."

However, with overtaking relatively easy at Monza and a much better forecast, Vettel is confident Ferrari can recover the situation on Sunday.

"We have a good car so we don't need to be afraid. Obviously today didn't go the way we wanted but for tomorrow I think we can make up a lot of ground – the car is quick. We know that. You can overtake here, so it should be a fun race."

Vettel also thanked the fans for their patience in waiting for qualifying to take place, with a two-and-a half-hour delay following Romain Grosjean's aquaplaning crash in Q1.

"We struggled with these conditions – but I think years ago we were able to run in these conditions, so something is not right. Obviously we struggled with aquaplaning; it's a shame for the people to [have to] wait. For us it doesn't matter – we're in the dry, we just wait and get ready again. But for the people out there it's quite ugly, so not ideal, but tomorrow should be a nicer day."