Sebastian Vettel described both his Ferrari car and team as "phenomenal" after taking second on the grid for the Spanish Grand Prix.

The German driver had several heart-in-mouth moments on Saturday as a failure at the end of practice required an engine change ahead of qualifying, then on his first flying lap in Q1, the team asked him to stop the car which would have resulted in starting last. 

However, the decision of Vettel to continue, later revealing he couldn't find a good place to stop so decided to carry on, later saw the issue clear and him able to eventually just miss out on pole by 0.051s from Lewis Hamilton in Q3. 

“I have to say the team did a phenomenal job,” Vettel said. “We’re quite surprised, had the issue this morning and had to change the engine and normally that’s plus 3 hours job if you’re rushing. I don’t know how they managed, they did it in sub-2 hours.

“Really a big thank you to them, also Kimi’s crew helped out so quite thankful and quite funny at one point when one car on one side of the garage was one or two mechanics, while the other one was completely crowded like bees hovering around the car so I think great effort so big thanks.”

After a lack of pace on Friday, the four-time world champion also heralded the performance of his SF70-H after a small mistake in the final sector arguably cost him the top spot.

“I think we could’ve had pole today so not the ideal end but considering where we were this morning and yesterday, I wasn’t happy with the car balance at all and today it was phenomenal,” he said.

“I felt yesterday that it was in the car, but I just couldn’t get to it but today was really a pleasure especially in the first two sectors.

“Conditions were tricky with the wind, never easy and not knowing what to expect, and I think I was caught out a bit in the last sector.”

In recent races, starting on the inside of the grid, as Vettel will on Sunday, has proved a disadvantage. Yet, despite the added factor of a run 700+ metre run to the first corner, the Scuderia driver seemed less concerned about losing positions.

“Yeah, you need a perfect start. As simple as that,” the 29-year-old admitted. “It’s a long way but I think the great thing is that there won’t be much difference (between the two sides of the grid) with all the racing series this weekend.

“You have Porsche, GP2, GP3... Sorry F2, so usually they put a lot of rubber down everywhere so I don’t think that’s a disadvantage, and as I said you need to get everything right, that’s the best way to attack and defend.”