Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsFerrari

'Force India is surprisingly quick' - Vettel

Sebastian Vettel says Ferrari needs to improve on Saturday to pull clear of the likes of Force India and Red Bull at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

While Kimi Raikkonen was third quickest behind the two Mercedes drivers in FP1 he was three quarters of a second slower than Lewis Hamilton's best time. The second session saw Sergio Perez third quickest ahead of Daniel Ricciardo, with Vettel - who finished the session in fifth place - admitted it was an unexpected challenge from Force India.

“All in all it’s Friday so I think we can still improve and we have to improve," Vettel said. "We are a little too far behind, I would like the gap to be smaller and also the gap to be bigger compared to the cars behind. Force India is surprisingly quick and also the Red Bulls, there is a lot of work for us.

"[Mercedes] looked very quick as usual - unfortunately - but we will try our best. I think we can improve ourselves and then we will see where we are tomorrow.”

Vettel started FP2 by singing Happy Birthday in Italian to his race engineer Riccardo Adami over team radio, saying he had forgotten to wish him it in person on Friday.

“I sort of missed out this morning so I thought I had to come up with something special to make it up.

“I hope [it wasn't distracting], I think my first lap was not stellar! But I think it was OK and he was very happy, it’s a very special day so I think he will remember that.”

AS IT HAPPENED: Abu Dhabi Grand Prix FP2

Eric Silbermann's Abu Dhabi grumpy preview

Use the red tabs on either side of the screen to scroll through more Formula One news and features

Click here for exclusive pictures of the Ferrari power unit

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

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.