Sebastian Vettel was nowhere near his usual position near the front of the field Friday in Baku, admitting to have struggled to extract speed from his mount around the tricky street circuit.
The Ferrari driver clocked in a low 10th in FP1, and one spot worse in the afternoon session after wrongly tweaking the set-up of his car.
Scuderia team mate Kimi Raikkonen concluded the day P2 behind Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo.
The German candidly said he only had himself to blame for his clear lack of pace, although he claimed to be satisfied with his long runs.
"This place is a little bit tricky to find the rhythm, it is not so easy," said Vettel.
"This morning I didn't find it and at the beginning of the second session I wasn't up to speed. But I was pretty happy with the long run in the end so it is okay."
Despite the disappointing start to his Azerbaijan weekend, the current leader of the world championship is confident his issues are nothing some further running and good work can't solve.
"I think the car is fine. As I said, I didn't get the laps together. It can happen very easily here with little mistakes here in braking – but the long run was a lot better," he added.
"We can improve the car a lot for tomorrow and then we should be okay."
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