28/09/2018
NEWS STORY
While he was the pace-setter in FP1, in today's second practice session, when it really mattered, Sebastian Vettel was unable to match the pace of the Mercedes duo.
In addition to not making the best use of his tyres, Vettel also struggled with traffic, unable to post a serious time on his qualifying simulations.
"Tricky," he replied, when asked to sum up his day. "Obviously we looked quite far away from the rest of the field, so not ideal.
"I was struggling a bit for one lap but also on the long run," he added. "I think we went through our tyres a bit harder and quicker than the rest, so we need to have a look.
"But also just looking at ourselves, it wasn't a good day in terms of feel for the car. I think there's more that we need to do.
"That's Friday for you," he concluded, "sometimes you have a better Friday, sometimes not. I think for us it wasn't a particularly clean run in the end, but still good enough.
"As I said, we struggled with the tyres with or without traffic. Certainly the traffic doesn't help, but I think we have some catching up to do."