Summary German Sebastian Vettel expects Sunday's Bahrain Grand Prix to be decided by strategic decisions.
MANAMA (AFP) - Just as in China last weekend, when the race was decided by similar factors, Vettel said he felt confident that by saving tyres he and Red Bull were in with a chance of more success.
The three-time defending world champion finished second in Saturday s qualifying session, two-tenths of a second behind his fellow-German Nico Rosberg of Mercedes.
He said: "I m definitely not disappointed. Congratulations to Nico, he did a very strong lap. It was all his today. And when I crossed the line I saw I didn t go first, saw second place on the screen and did not know how much was missing because my lap was fine.
"When I got told the gap to P1 and Nico, it was clear that even with a perfect lap I couldn t have done it. Nevertheless I am very happy we managed to save some tyres throughout qualifying.
"It will be all about tyres and tyre degradation tomorrow (Sunday) once again. We will see what happens but it s good to start from front row."
Vettel s relative success was in contrast to the continuing misfortunes of his team-mate Australian Mark Webber who qualified with the fifth-best time, but takes eighth place on the grid thanks to a penalty carried forward from last Sunday s Chinese Grand Prix.
"I was expecting a bit more from it to be honest," he said. "It felt good in P2 and P3, so the build-up has been pretty good.
"Overall I would have liked to extract a bit more out of the car. It s easy to leave a little bit of lap time round here by pushing just a step too hard.
"That s the way it is for all of us, and there s a lot of treacherous corners where like I say you can drop two or three tenths here and there.
"Overall I think it would have been very difficult for me to be on the front row, I certainly left a little bit out there."
