A revitalised Sebastian Vettel smiled with pleasure despite missing out on pole position for the United States Grand Prix by just 0.012 seconds in Saturday's qualifying.
He was just beaten to pole by Mercedes Valtteri Bottas after a closely fought session that brought Ferrari's run of six poles in succession to an end.
But four-time champion German Vettel was buoyant about his chances of grabbing a second win of the season in Sunday's race at the Circuit of the Americas.
"It was very exciting because we were all so close. In my final run, we were already a little bit down. I had two decent laps," said the German.
"We hope to have a good start off the line which will be crucial. We are on the medium tyre with the others, so nobody has a advantage there so we will have a busy race - and it should be fun."
"I'm the only one to improve, but it may be because I lacked a bit of running. I got the speed a bit too late!
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