Vettel: 'We need to get qualifying right'

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Sebastian Vettel underlined the need for Ferrari to get everything it can out of Saturday's qualifying if the team is going to have a chance to shine under the floodlights at Singapore this weekend.

"Tomorrow is important, we need to get everything right in qualifying," he said after practice which saw him finish the day fifth fastest, albeit still a disappointing one second off the pace of Mercedes' Nico Rosberg.

"It is very difficult to pass here so we will try to trim everything towards qualifying and then we will see. If we get everything right it will be very tight but we have the chance.

"I think Mercedes is the favourite and I think we are in the same boat at Red Bull, we try to get everything in line and line our ducks up in the right way and hopefully we can have a shot."

Vettel knows he'll need to find better form than he did in Friday's practice session if he's going to have a chance of picking up a second consecutive win in Singapore.

"I think overall it was OK; in the evening I wasn’t entirely happy with the car balance and therefore not finding the rhythm but all in all it’s been a good day.

"I struggled a bit to find the rhythm but all in all, I think it’s been a decent session," he said. "I think my lap wasn’t good enough [but] I think Kimi had a very good lap."

Another factor could be the timing of any safety cars, which invariably feature at Marina Bay Street Circuit - although Vettel said he couldn't rely on them on Sunday when it came to planning race strategy.

"They come at the right time and it can have a big impact on the race but I think everyone is in the same boat, some you win, some you lose. We are planning to race 61 laps and we are not relying on a safety car here."

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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.