Vettel admits: I wasn't good enough

Sebastian Vettel admitted that his first run in Q3 simply 'wasn't good enough' after the German had to settle for fourth on the grid for the Belgian Grand Prix.

Vettel had earlier found himself in trouble in Q1 when he was the final driver to head out of track to complete his first flying lap and therefore was faced with the wettest condition when rain started to fall.

Having successfully made it through the first part of qualifying with a quicker lap as the circuit started to dry out, the Red Bull man eased into Q3 but then lost time on his first flying lap.

With rain then starting to fall again, the pressure was on for Vettel to try and join team-mate Mark Webber on the front row but an error at turn 14 saw the German run wide and lose vital time that left him to settle for fourth on the grid.

"We had a bad start with Q1 being last out of the box," he said. "It gave us the advantage of not suffering any traffic, but then you're the one who has to face the most water on the track with dry tyres - it was tricky. Fortunately we could get a lap in on the intermediate tyres and we were safe, but you never know in these conditions.

"Q2 was comfortable and in Q3 it turned out that the first run was most important. There was a bit of rain in the first corner and my first try in Q3 wasn't good enough, simple as that. I made a couple of mistakes at the beginning of the first sector and lost momentum. On the last lap I made a good recovery and it was quicker than my first try, but then I went a bit sideways in turn 14 and that was it.

"The most important thing today was that the car was very good, good enough to be ahead of everyone else. It didn't happen for me today, so we need to do it tomorrow."