Sebastian Vettel says he was pleased to notice that Ferrari’s pace in Friday practice for the Malaysian Grand Prix “did not look too bad”, after setting the fourth and third fastest times at Sepang.
While the four-time world champion was over a second adrift of FP1 pace-setter Nico Rosberg in the morning, he managed to close the gap to 0.6s in the afternoon session. More importantly for Vettel, Ferrari showed promising speed compared to Mercedes during its long-run stints.
“We had a decent day and tested quite a lot of different things,” he said. “In the end, we try to be competitive. I think our pace did not look too bad, at least from what I was told inside the car.”
When asked whether Malaysia presented Ferrari with the best chance to win a race this year, given its success at Sepang in similarly hot conditions last year, Vettel replied: “I hope not.
“I hope that we can progress and improve. Whatever comes up we need to take it. Our target is to win one or more races if we have the chance. Ultimately, I think it comes down to doing our best and getting the most out of package and we see where it takes us.
“I think if the chance is there we have to go for it, but we are realistic and we have seen Mercedes very strong on both short and long runs.
“Historically we seem to do well when it’s warm and today was quite warm. But Malaysia is always warm. If that’s the name of the game, that the hot conditions suit us, the fact that the weather is warm here might a good thing.”
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