Ferrari Formula 1 driver Sebastian Vettel says 💮he was left “playing catch-up” after a risky approach to his final run in Singapore Grand Prix qualifying failed to pay of൩f.

Vettel had sat on provisional pole position after a strong opening lap in Q3 but teammate Charles Leclerc hit 🐬back with a 1m36.217s to outpace Ve🐼ttel by two-tenths and claim his fifth pole of the season.

The German, who has been out-qualified by Leclerc at the last seven races, aborted his final lap after an error-strewn effort, lea💜ving him third on the grid after Lewis Hamilton pipped him to the front-row by just 0.02ꦚ9s.

“It started off very good and then the last run I think I had already in sector one lost a bit the⛦n was playing catch-up,” Vettel explained.

“Trying to ta❀ke more and more risks throughout the lap which did💧n’t pay off and then the last lap obviously didn’t come together.

“I think overall it’s a good result for us, putting the car first and third for the team is great. It wasn’t a track wh🌌ere we expected to be so strong.

“So I’m happy with that, but not at t𝓀he end of Q3. The car was good today and pole wa♏s up for grabs, but we’ll see tomorrow.”

Asked whether he felt pole would have been possible had he been 🎶able to pull off a perfect lap, Vettel replied: “Well I didn’t do it, so obviously it’s all ifs and so on.

“I think the lap time was possible. I thought the first runꦐ was a good reference but sector three I had quite a bit of lap time in hand, and parts in sector two.

“In the last attempt I lost the car a little bit through Turn 3 in sector one, and then again in Turn 9. From that point onwards I was a little bit down compared to previous laps and was 🥃trying to catch up, probably pushed a bit hard. As simple as that.

“Then I had a bigger mistake at Turn 18 so there was quite a bit of lap time lost. The car was good, I felt good, just aꦰ shame I didn’t put together the last attempt in Q3 but 🍎I think it was there today.”

Vettel felt “not much” had changed for Ferrar🍸i overnight in Singa༒pore despite struggling to match its rivals for pace throughout Friday practice, though he suspects cooler temperatures helped his SF90 “come alive faster”.

“Obviously yesterday we suffered with a lack o꧅f front grip, so we ꧟tried to put more front in the car,” he said.

“Tonight when the temperatures dropped it seems to come꧋ alive faster, I think that’s the biggest difference, in terms of spec the same🃏 as yesterday.”