© Getty Images
Sebastian Vettel says he cannot remember a smoother Friday practice session after Ferrari turned in a strong performance on the opening day in Melbourne.
Vettel was best of the rest behind Mercedes in the FP2 qualifying runs, albeit by eight tenths of a second. Vettel and Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen both surprisingly finished ahead of the Williams of Valtteri Bottas but the German insists he is not looking at other cars at this stage.
When asked how if felt finishing ahead of Williams, Vettel replied: “It would be nice to stay in front! It would be nice to stay in front of as many as we can. I think Mercedes is out of reach. The most important thing today is that we ran without any problem. It was very, very smooth and I don’t remember the last smooth Friday I had like this.”
Vettel thinks Ferrari’s strong start to the Australian Grand Prix weekend is reward for the hard work conducted by the team over the winter tests.
“It was a good day. We didn’t have any issues with the car, performance or reliability. It seems that the hard work we did over the tests was positive. We had a smooth day which was the most important thing. In terms of performance, for sure the higher up you are the better but it’s Friday. I’ve been in Formula One for quite a while and Friday is not that important to the outcome.”
