Sebastian Vettel came away from Monaco feeling happy about a good weekends work.
The Red Bull proved itself to be the best of the rest during the final stage of qualifying. On a dry track the one-lap pace performance of Mercedes was set to see them dominate qualifying and that proved to be the case with Nico Rosberg claiming his third consecutive pole position and Lewis Hamilton locking out the front row.
Vettel settled for third ahead of Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber.
After qualifying Vettel told formula1.com: ?I was a bit annoyed with my flying lap in Q3; I think I may be pushed a bit too hard here and there. The start of the lap wasn?t bad, but also it wasn?t great; with hindsight I should have gone for two flying laps at the start of Q3 and not one, but I decided for that. I thought the tyres would be good enough for the first lap. I have been struggling all weekend, but in the end it was tight. Pole was probably possible today, but we are third. I think with the Mercedes in front, it was expected that they would be strong. We have a good race car and should be able to do well from there tomorrow.?
A good start from the grid almost saw Vettel attempt to squeeze down the inside of Nico Rosberg going into the first corner.
On any other race track around the world the start Vettel enjoyed would have seen him safely take the lead of the race, but in Monaco Rosberg closed the door and with his team-mate on the outside of the turn, Vettel had to settle for third place going into the first corner.
With Mercedes controlling the pace of the race and conserving their tyres, Red Bull were forced to race with one hand tied behind their back.
They clearly had the race pace ahead of the Mercedes but they just could not get past the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton.
The first safety car period resolved that problem though with both Vettel and Webber getting past Hamilton under the first round of pit-stops.
It was all Red Bull needed to get both men on the podium. But neither could challenge Nico Rosberg for the race win.
But in regards to the Championship, Vettel would have been more concerned about the Ferrari of Fernando Alonso and the Lotus of Kimi Raikkonen.
Alonso went on to finish in seventh place, whilst a final lap storming run from Kimi saw him recover from 16th to take the final point available in 10th.
?Overall I?m happy and pleased with the result, we know that it?s very difficult to overtake here. Congratulations to Nico, he did a very good job and had a very controlled race; I think he had the pace and the tyres to respond whenever we tried to get a little bit closer to him. I had a fantastic start, but there was no room! I think I could have gone past both Mercedes, but there was no space and I had to lift. Then Mark came and it was very tight into the first corner. I was a bit surprised by the slow pace of the opening laps ? usually you expect two silver arrows in front of you, but they were more like buses today going for a cruise on the first couple of laps. But, the strategy for them was clear and they did a very good job. It was a good strategy from our team to get past Lewis. It was hard with the restarts, but we can be happy with the result. It was a good achievement by the team; we seem to like this place. Congratulations to everyone and thanks to all our partners ? two cars on the podium is very good.?
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