Friday 'not the perfect day' for Vettel

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Despite topping the timesheets in Friday's Free Practice 1 session, Sebastian Vettel suggested that the opening day of the Spanish Grand Prix weekend at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya could have gone better for Ferrari.

"This afternoon was a bit trickier for us, not as good as the morning, " admitted the four-time world champion.

"We are not as satisified as we could have been. It was a bit tricky getting the car in the right window but usually we are quite good at getting it right on Friday night for Saturday so I’m looking forward to that.

"We can still work on the car and improve overnight," he added. "Even if today was not the perfect day we should be better tomorrow."

Once Mercedes broke out the soft compound tyres in the afternoon it was harder for Ferrari to stay in touch and Vettel dropped to fourth fastest by the end of FP2. However he took heart from how close his team mate Kimi Raikkonen was able to use more soft tyres to press Nico Rosberg at the top of the timesheets, giving rise to optimism as to what Ferrari might be able to achieve in qualifying and the race.

"We want to win. That is why we are here not to be second," he stated. "It is never too soon to start winning we all know where we want to go.

"Equally we know our opposition at this stage is very strong. We have a couple of things coming this weekend that should make it more of a challenge for them."

And Vettel admitted that the team was under increasing pressure from senior management to deliver wins as soon as possible, and that even team principal Maurizio Arrivabene is feeling the heat.

"He is the boss and he is doing a very good job leading the team. On the other hand he is reachable and accessible spending a lot of time with the team, not just here but also in Maranello.

"I know there has been some rumours and b*****t lately but I think we are very, very happy he is with us and not with somebody else."

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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.