Sebastian Vettel unhappy with German Grand Prix qualifying performance

The Red Bull driver will start from second position after finishing four tenths of a second behind Ferrari rival Fernando Alonso in a session that took place on a very wet track.

Vettel said his quickest lap of the session had been far from perfect, and was convinced his car had the pace to be on pole.

"I was not happy with my lap," admitted the German. "Fernando's strategy was a bit quicker. I could have gone quicker but we don't know if it would have been good enough.

"In these conditions it is tricky, you lose the car a little bit over the rivers on the track and you are on a different place than you targeted to be but it's tricky. Nevertheless we had the pace today to put the car on pole in the end. I think it was possible.

"We need to have a look at what Fernando did at the end with the strategy, maybe that was the better way to do it but overall I think in these conditions it's a bit of a lottery as well."

Vettel is hopeful his Red Bull will be stronger than on Friday following some set-up changes, but the world champion admitted it was hard to get the car right given the changeable weather.

"The car is not bad if we get in the right window so we need to look at what we've done in practice this morning. With the conditions changing we can't find consistency but I think the changes we've made should be a step," he said.

The Red Bull driver said he had lost a lap of running in Q3 because of team-mate Mark Webber, who will start the race from eighth place.

"I lost a lap obviously running into him but it's difficult in these conditions and you can see nothing in the mirror so probably he didn't see me and then with two laps to the chequered flag you can't back off to get your lap again. For sure, I lost a little bit but the track was best at the end. The last lap was not completely clean."