Vettel will start his home German Grand Prix from sixth position, almost a second off the Mercedes pace and six tenths off the fastest Red Bull.

"I didn't really feel that comfortable in qualy," said Vettel. "I was very happy with my final attempt but it was just not quick enough so it didn't come together.

"It's something that we need to understand where we were missing out to everyone else, to the people ahead.

"Overall it's a decent result, but we're not here to finish fifth and sixth, we're here to challenge for pole on Saturday and win on Sunday. We know Mercedes is in superb form at the moment and it's difficult."

When asked if he thought Red Bull had made a convincing step ahead of Ferrari in the pecking order as best of the rest, Vettel said: "It's not necessarily that other people have made a step, but I think we fell back this afternoon – also compared to Force India.

"I think it's fair to say we're not as good as we usually are, so a couple of things we need to understand."

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