Vettel aiming for top eight finish

The 21-year-old German, who starts eighth on the grid at Silverstone, has made it clear that he is aiming for his fifth career points finish this weekend.

"We don't plan to finish worse than that," he said. "Our target is to go forward. Obviously it is very difficult because we have some very fast cars behind us so I think it will be quite difficult in a normal race to hold Felipe Massa for instance.

"But we are going in the right direction in terms of car development and you can see that since Monaco we are progressing step-by-step. Magny-Cours we had a good race - we finished 12th but it was the limit - so I think if we can finish in the top 10 it would be great.

"You always want to finish in the points and it's clear you want to win the race! We have to see what we can do. We don't know what will happen with the weather - it will be a surprise!"

Vettel believes he got the maximum potential from the STR3 in qualifying and even admitted a little surprise at his starting position.

"Overall I think there wasn't much more we could do," he said. "We achieved getting into Q3, which has been the target all weekend long. It was difficult to know what we could expect because obviously we never know what the other teams are doing. We never expected to be in that strong a position.

"On the other hand it was very close, but anyway we went to Q3 and we did a very good job. All the weekend we had a good balance in the car, it felt very comfortable, and if you have the confidence then you are able to push that bit harder."

Vettel added that the performance was proof that the team was improving and that the car has real pace.

"It was a very good day for us," he said. "It's good to show on this kind of circuit. Here you need the car to be fast. That is very good to see and gives us all a good mood regarding the next races.

"It is even more fun when you fight for the top ten and points when you're used to P15!"