Sebastian Vettel admits he did not know just how strong Ferrari's pace would be in qualifying after taking pole position for the Russian Grand Prix.
The German snatched his first Formula One pole since the 2015 Singapore Grand Prix with a dramatic last-gasp effort in Sochi, pipping teammate Kimi Raikkonen to top spot by just 0.059s as Ferrari claimed its first front-row lock-out since France 2008. Despite Ferrari topping all three practice sessions in Russia, Vettel says he was unsure whether his team's performance advantage over Mercedes would last throughout the entirety of qualifying.
"You are always eyeing for pole when you go into qualifying, but I think I was also eyeing it in the last couple of events but I had to learn harshly in Q3 that we weren't quite ready," Vettel said.