Ferrari feeling frazzled after Friday practice slump

Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, Singapore Grand Prix

Friday's practice sessions in Singapore hadn't gone according to plan for Ferrari, for either Sebastian Vettel or Kimi Raikkonen.

Vettel was second fastest in the first session but was only 11th in the night time practice. He was unable to set a representative lap time on ultrasoft tyres because of traffic, and due to hitting the wall in turn 10 mid-session.

"It was not ideal," Vettel said of his day. "It was a tricky session for us. The balance wasn't quite there. But I think it's in the car.

"I'm not yet happy, missing a bit the balance. Then you miss a bit the confidence," he explained. "We tried a couple of things. I'm not sure they are the right things to do."

His contact with the wall dislodged an advertising hoarding, triggering a virtual safety car period. Vettel's car needed to be checked over in the pits, costing him valuable time.

"I didn't mean to go off," he continued. "I was very lucky I could continue.

"It's clear both of us weren't that happy today," he said. "We need to improve but I'm sure we have enough time to look at it and find a solution."

"Now we see what we can do tomorrow. It's not the first Friday we've struggled. I'm pretty sure we'll be close tomorrow."

FP2: Ricciardo stays in charge in Singapore night practice

His Ferrari team mate Kimi Raikkonen was also off-colour on Friday. He was seventh fastest in FP1, 1.245s off Daniel Ricciardo's pace. He slipped back even further after dark and was ninth fastest, the gap to the Red Bull extended to 1.98s.

"It wasn't ideal in the afternoon but overall not a lot of things made sense," said the Finn. "For sure I expected a bit more but obviously it wasn't.

"It is not exactly where we expected to start," he admitted. "It's not the first time and it's only Friday.

"We need to make sure we have everything where we want and have a good set-up," he continued. "Obviously the tyres are always the key. It's not any different here than other places."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.