Ferrari didn't get German GP qualifying set-up right, Vettel says

Raikkonen beat Vettel to fifth on the grid, but both lagged behind Red Bull duo Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen on row two and were only a couple of tenths quicker than the Williams and Force India battle behind.

"It is clear that in qualifying we were not as competitive as we wanted to be - not just looking at who's ahead but looking at who is behind too," Vettel admitted.

"We were two tenths quicker than Force India and usually we are a lot quicker and the gaps to people behind are bigger.

"Clearly we didn't get everything right so we need to understand why.

"We were struggling to find the right set-up and we didn't find it for quali, at least with the conditions that we had this afternoon."

Raikkonen said Ferrari had taken on more downforce for qualifying and the car was "feeling pretty OK", without "any big issues".

"On the last set [of tyres] it was a bit more difficult but overall the car was behaving well - as far as we could make it," he said.

"We need to be faster and unfortunately that we cannot change right now."

Vettel said Ferrari had seemed in better shape in morning practice, when Raikkonen was fourth and only a tenth-and-a-half from pacesetter Nico Rosberg's Mercedes.

"You always try to improve and try to bring the balance together," said Vettel.

"Yesterday I was struggling with both the front and rear end in different corners at different speeds.

"In the morning we got to a reasonable level but it seemed that this afternoon we weren't able to bring it together once more.

"I don't want to blame it on the tyres because my feeling for the tyres was fine. There have been events clearly where you have felt like you can't get the tyres to work but here I don't think that that was a problem.

"Normally we do pick up a bit of competitiveness compared to Saturday for Sunday.

"But it is up to us to understand the reasons why we are not where we should be on Saturday."

He admitted Raikkonen had got on top of the car's handling better in qualifying.

"At some point this morning I think he was starting to feel more comfortable as I was starting to feel more uncomfortable," Vettel said.

"It was all sort of drifting away and he started off on a better foot in quali and was just quicker throughout.

"In the end I got reasonably close. At the beginning it looked a lot worse."