Vettel pinpoints reason for Ferrari Monaco qualifying struggles

Sebastian Vettel said a continued failure to get on top of 2019's tyres affected Ferrari's qualifying efforts for the Monaco Grand Prix after he could only manage fourth on the grid, a good distance away from the leading Mercedes pair.

Lewis Hamilton led Valtteri Bottas in yet another Mercedes front-row lockout with a sixth one-two finish of the season now on the cards.

Vettel's Saturday was hampered by a crash in FP3, which wiped out almost his entire session, before his team-mate Charles Leclerc was eliminated in Q1 due to dozy strategy from the pit wall.

Asked if the pressure had affected Ferrari, Vettel said: "This morning has nothing to do with that in all fairness, I don't want to shift the blame.

"In the afternoon, certainly the first two laps you need to rebuild and get in the rhythm. But I've been many times around here so that's not a problem.

"We struggled to get the tyres to work and then you just don't get the feel you want or need.

"Especially the front tyres for us didn't work today, so we need to dig deep.

"We are already trying to understand as much as we can. Sometimes it works, this morning Charles was quite happy, and the few laps I had too.

"For now obviously it is what it is we need to accept even if we don't want to, but we go from there."

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