Sebastian Vettel says he is unsure why he struggl♚ed so much during an “up and down” qual𓆏ifying session for Formula 1’s French Grand Prix.

The Ferrari driver could only manage the se🅘venth-bes💖t time as he ended up being out-qualified by Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and both McLaren drivers.

Having reported a small upshifting problem Vettel aborted his first Q3 run before putting in a lap that saw him finish over 1.4s off the🌄 pace of pole sitter Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes and nearly a second adrift of Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc.

“I don’t know what happened bu𒆙t I lost so much momentum that there was no point to finish that [first] lap,” Vettel explꦕained.

“It was not great, up and🥂 down. Some laps felt great, others didn’t.

“In the end I didn’t get the best out of the car, which is not satisfying but as I said it was difficult for me because ꦑsome laps it was really good - it was coming and some laps I don’t know why but I didn’t have the grip thꦗat I did on the runs before.

“It’s a shame that it happened in Q3, it would have been bette⛄r to be sꦍlower in the other segments but that is what it is today.”

Ferrari brought a host of updates to Paul Ricard - including a new front and rear wing - in a bid to address the weaknesses of its complex SF90 challenger, though it ha𓂃s opted to revert back on a number of older items after Vettel reported they had not delivered as expected.

Asked if the upgrades would help him fightback through the field on Sunday, Vettel replied: “Well we reverted on most of them so obviously not the step that w𓄧e expected.

“Tomorrow I think we haveജ good pace to have a 🍸good race, obviously Mercedes is far away but we should be in the mix with Red Bull.”