Sebastian Vettel believes the competitive pace shown by Williams in free practice for the Brazilian Grand Prix is “genuine”, while the Ferrari star experienced “a tricky day” that included a spin in FP1.
Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa were third and fourth fastest behind the Mercedes pair in the afternoon at Interlagos, having already featured at the front in the morning session.
Besides slipping down the pecking order in 2016, Williams has also tended to keep a fairly low profile on Fridays.
“I think it’s genuine,” Vettel said of the Grove-based outfit’s speed. “It will be interesting to see what happens on Saturday. Normally they are a little bit down on a Friday because they run less power.”
Vettel only ran the medium compound en route to ninth quickest in FP1, before only improving to seventh on the soft tyre in the second session, over seven tenths off the Mercedes' pace.
“It was a tricky day, very slippery and very hot, so everybody I think was struggling with the tyres,” the four-time world champion added.
“It was a bit difficult to find a rhythm, but on the long run it was a bit better for us. I haven’t seen what the others are doing, but I felt a bit more confident with more time and laps in the car.”
Asked whether he was holding back on this opening day at the Autodromo José Carlos Pace, Vettel replied: “We were pushing to the maximum, but maybe we were not quick enough. We tried a lot of things and now we need to go and see what was actually best.
“Towards the end of the day I seemed to calm down a bit more and find a rhythm, which wasn’t the case for the short run and the fast lap – I wasn’t very happy.
“But the good news is that the gaps are really close, of course Mercedes seem to be a bit up front as expected, but other than that I think it’s very close. If it stays like that I think we have the chance to do well on Saturday.”
FP2 REPORT: 0.030s separate title rivals in FP2 at Interlagos
Romain Grosjean column: Time for Haas to raise its game
Chris Medland's 2016 Brazilian Grand Prix
FEATURE: What Rosberg need to do to win the title in Brazil
INTERVIEW: Fernando Alonso: Why F1 is no longer just for heroes
TECHNICAL: Under the skin of the Ferrari SF16-H
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