Ferrari didn’t dominate Free Practice, but remains on course for the rest of the season
Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Räikkönen (second in FP2) have high hopes for the battle for pole position with Mercedes and Red Bull. However, the team is not sovereign and a few details remain to be worked out, especially on the German side...
As the reigning champion, the SF16-H was closely scrutinized during the first laps on Friday in Singapore.
Dominated by the two Red Bulls at midday but ahead of the Mercedes through a third-place Sebastian Vettel, the Italian car this time outpaced its Austrian rival in the Singapore night, through Kimi Räikkönen, this time behind a Mercedes, that of Nico Rosberg.
In total, the two drivers in red suits used three sets each of ultra-softs and one set of super-softs (Räikkönen) and softs (Vettel), both during FP2.
Räikkönen pleased with his handling but “it’s only Friday.”
FP1: 6th -> 1:46.890 (20 Laps); FP2: 2nd -> 1:44.427 (34 Laps)
« The first practice session was tricky: I had to struggle a lot with my car. The second session was better: everything worked. If you manage to set up the car well here, it’s easier to look for performance. So, we have a good feeling coming out of this day, but of course, there are still things to improve. It’s still hard to say if we will be in good shape. »
However, Ferrari’s competitiveness seems to be there, especially in the exercise of the flying lap. As a result, “Iceman” had to respond to journalists’ minor provocations about a possible pole position tomorrow, following in the footsteps of Daniel Ricciardo, the only driver to have broken Mercedes’ Saturday hegemony this season.
« We obviously hope so. We feel like we’re going to do something this weekend, we have the speed to compete with our rivals. But we don’t know exactly what will happen tomorrow. We’ll see. »
Vettel: My second session was more difficult.
FP1: 3rd ->1:46.287 (22 Laps); FP2: 5th -> 1:45.161 (33 Laps)
The four-time local winner indeed seemed to have more difficulty with his machine during the second free practice session. Fortunately, his teammate’s performance gave him reasons to be hopeful when debriefing his day:
« My best lap wasn’t good enough. Kimi had a very good lap. I wasn’t entirely happy, I struggled quite a bit with the car’s balance, plus, we didn’t really find the pace. In all that, it’s still a good day. »
The number 5 highlighted the importance of the qualifying session. Since 2009 and his move to Red Bull, Vettel has never started further back than fourth position in the Singapore night race.
« Tomorrow will be an important day – it’s very difficult to overtake here so we will try to put everything together in qualifying. It will be very tight but we have a good chance. »
But for that, they will have to push away the major rivals: Red Bull and also Mercedes, which is more accessible this weekend but no less fast this Friday.
Mercedes is the favorite, we are in the same boat as Red Bull.
More than Red Bull, the behavior of Vettel’s car in the afternoon shows that the Italian car still has progress to make in terms of consistency. Clearly less comfortable on long runs than the Austrian car, or even the Mercedes, the two representatives of the Prancing Horse will have a lot of pressure on their shoulders from the start of Q1, as they haven’t secured a Pole Position since the Singapore Grand Prix, almost exactly a year ago.
