Vettel: “My qualification compromised by a gearbox problem”

Sebastian Vettel says Red Bull is running out of time to fix the problem that has hampered its qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix.

The world champion was eliminated in Q2 for the second time this season and qualified in 11th position, although he will start from tenth due to the grid penalty of his teammate Daniel Ricciardo.

Vettel suffered a downshift problem during his fastest lap in Q2, a problem which appeared after the first qualifying segment and which Red Bull was unable to resolve in time.

The world champion believes he would have made Q3 without that problem.

“We had some problems with the gearbox. Between Q1 and Q2 something went wrong and we couldn't resolve the problem in time, so my lap was compromised,” Vettel said.

“It's hard to measure, but it definitely didn't help. The behavior of the car was not what I expected or the way I wanted it.”

The German also explained that a problem with downshifting in a 1 F2014 car has other ramifications affecting its handling.

“There's a lot of stuff going on this year,” he said. “Obviously there's a combination of things that get upset.”

“It can be a little tricky. We worked on it quite a bit. We're not where we want to be yet, so I'm not yet satisfied with the car to reach the pinnacle. There's a lot of stuff ahead of us.”

Vettel admitted that the nature of the Sakhir circuit had always proved more difficult for Red Bull.

“We knew from testing that it is a difficult track for us,” he said. “Still, I think we have a good chance to put the car in a decent place in the points.”