Sebastian Vettel says he ♎is unsure why he struggled so much d😼uring an “up and down” qualifying session for Formula 1’s French Grand Prix.

Th𝔉e Ferrari driver could only manage the seventh-best 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 ab🅘orted 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 but I lost so much momentum that there was no po🌊int to ꦐfinish that [first] lap,” Vettel explained.

“It w꧟as 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 some laps it was really good - it was coming and some laps I don’t know why but I didn’t꧟ have the grip that I did on the runs before.

“It’🐽s a shame that it happened in Q3, it would have ꦓbeen better to be slower 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 SF9💦0 challenger, though it has 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 obviou𓆉sly not the step that we expected.

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