Sebastian Vettel concerned by Ferrari's "small mistake" in Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

Sebastian Vettel called the miscalculation made by his Ferrari team that saw him go out in Q1 and qualify only 16th for Sunday’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix “a small mistake with a big consequence” but remains optimistic about his overtaking chances.

Vettel missed the cut in the first part of qualifying yesterday after his team mistakenly thought his lap time of 1:42.941 was enough to secure his passage to Q2.

It means he would have to fight his way from the back of the grid while his team-mate Kimi Raikkonen starts from third.

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“We thought we were quick enough, we thought the time was enough but turned out not to be. Not very spectacular but that’s what happened,” Vettel said calmly after the session.

“Kimi was quicker so at the end I should have done a quicker lap and then we could have made it. In that moment we thought it was enough but it wasn’t so obviously quite costly. We know what happened, and now we need to start the race from further back and that’s the challenge now.”

While Yas Marina Circuit is historically not an easy track for overtaking, Vettel has experience navigating the grid from the back having started from the pit lane in 2012 only to go on and finish third.

The four-time world champion acknowledges the tough challenge he has ahead of him but feels confident in his chances of having a good race.

“It’s better than in Monaco so…” Vettel said with a laugh about how difficult it is to overtake in Abu Dhabi.

“It depends obviously who you want to overtake, of course if you get further up it naturally becomes more difficult. But we are quite a bit quicker than a lot of cars so hopefully we can clear them and then we’ll see.

"We have to be awake, we have to be ready. I think you can overtake, sometimes it’s not easy but it’s not impossible.”

Vettel had trouble in qualifying in Canada last June, but he managed to claim fifth place in the race despite starting from the 16th position.

“It depends on the start, the first couple of laps, and then strategy, whether there’s a safety car or not which brings the field back together – there’s a lot of variables. I will try to race hard and then we see where we are,” he added.

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