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Sebastian Vettel has praised his mechanics after they changed his engine between practice three and qualifying, a tight space of just two hours. The German made it onto the front row of the grid, with his fastest lap half a tenth down on Lewis Hamilton.
However, his day could have been much different, as at the start of Q1 he was told to pull over at the side of the track. With a bit of negotiation, he was able to keep going, which proved to be the correct decision as he now has a decent chance of taking spoils in Barcelona tomorrow.
"The team did a phenomenal job," he said. "I was quite surprised, as we had to change the engine, and normally it's close to a three-hour job if you rush it, but they did it in sub two hours. It was five to two, I was ready, and we were ready to go out in Q1, so really a big thank you to them.
"Kimi's crew also helped out, so on one car on one side of the garage there were two mechanics, and the other one was completely crowded like bees hovering around the car."
Vettel looked set to take pole position, as he was massively faster than the second sector split but lost time coming into the last chicane. Despite missing out, he's happy where he ended up when considering what happened at the start of Q1.
"I think we could have had pole today, so it's not the ideal end, but if I consider where we were this morning, with the change we made for Q1, I think it's a very good recovery," he said.
"Yesterday I wasn't happy with the car balance at all and today it was phenomenal. Yesterday I felt it was in the car, but I couldn't get to it, today it was incredible, especially in the first two sectors.
"Conditions were tricky with the wind and I got caught out a bit in the last sector, my favourite place. Mark Webber taught me many lessons [about that sector] over the years and I still haven't got it, so I need to go back to school maybe and have a look at it, as it's still a bit tricky. I'm sure with a race and a rhythm tomorrow it'll be fine."
Fergal Walsh
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