Ferrari FP2 performance 'a mixed bag' - Vettel

Sebastian Vettel says Ferrari needs to make progress overnight after "a bit of a mixed bag" during Friday practice for the Hungarian Grand Prix.

The opening practice session saw Mercedes over 1.6s clear of the rest of the field, with Ferrari occupying third and fourth in the standings. FP2 saw the gaps closing up, with Vettel jumped by Daniel Ricciardo but getting within a second of Nico Rosberg's pace.

"It was a bit of a mixed bag this afternoon," Vettel said. "The car feels okay, we need to improve a little bit all around and then we should be in a better tomorrow.

"It’s quite obvious that Mercedes was very competitive in the morning and afternoon. I haven’t seen the long runs, but as I said, we need to work on ourselves and then see where we are.

"I think we lost a bit of time in the beginning with the red flag it was not ideal. We had to come in a couple of times and re-programme the car, so we had to come in and go out, but we were able to fix it so that’s good news. We lost a bit of the rhythm, but it was OK and the car felt fine and I think we can improve the set-up for tomorrow and find a better balance in the car."

And Vettel says the balance should see Ferrari improve in all areas throughout the lap as it looks to get closer to Mercedes.

"We need to better in sectors one, two and three – there is not one sector that stands out. As I said, I am not entirely happy with the balance, so naturally if the balance comes more together I think we can improve overnight and improve in sectors one, two and three. It’s not a surprise that Mercedes is good."

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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.