Vettel refuses to explain his curt Q3 radio message to Ferrari

Sebastian Vettel blamed a scrappy lap for costing him pole position in Italian Grand Prix, as he refused to elaborate on a curt radio message at the end of Q3

Just moments after celebrating over the radio as he briefly grabbed the top spot at Monza, Vettel was informed by the team that he had ended up in second after being edged out by Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen.

Replying over the team radio, Vettel said to the team: "We speak after."

Vettel handed Raikkonen a useful slipstream by running ahead on track in Q3, and it looked as though Vettel might have been obliquely referencing that fact.

But pushed on his radio comment, and whether there would be team orders in the race, Vettel said: "No, I don't think anything related to that. Clearly I wasn't happy but I don't tell you why."

Vettel said that giving the slipstream was not out of the ordinary, because it was Raikkonen's turn to run second on the track as part of a normal rotation between the drivers from race to race.

"We have an order that changes every week," Vettel explained. "This weekend was Kimi to go second, simple."

Rather than blame his qualifying defeat on the slipstream, Vettel believed he ultimately lost out because of a series of mistakes over his final qualifying lap.

"To be honest it was not a tidy lap, the other laps were actually better," he said.

"I lost a bit at the first chicane, second chicane, the Lesmos, pretty much a bit everywhere.

"The last sector was okay but not fantastic, so not just a good lap and not good enough obviously.

"I was lucky to get second instead of third, but it was just not good enough."