A temporary domination for Vettel: Mercedes will be back with a vengeance on Saturday;

Vettel: FP1 → 2nd, 1:13.621 (33 laps) / FP2 → 1st, 1:12.720 (37 laps)

The German was, so to speak, alone in the world this afternoon, if we trust the timing sheet. Half a second ahead of the rest! A beautiful demonstration for the Ferrari driver, who was dominated in the morning by Hamilton by just a tenth. (+0.196)

The four-time world champion then gradually increased the pace during FP2. He first set the benchmark in the first sector, before locking his wheels at the Tunnel exit, consequently aborting his lap.

A few kilometers further on, the driver with number 5 clearly improved by going under 1:13 for the first time, with a time of exactly 1:12.759. And despite a small error in the last sector, Vettel did even better the next lap: 1:12.720! He seems confident at the helm of his machine.

Here, it is very important to have a good feeling with the car, and to put all these laps together. Therefore, you may not necessarily have a representative time at the end of the day. But surely, we managed to put everything in place, we are quite happy with that.

Beyond his performance, the gap with the two Mercedes is striking. When questioned about the average performance of his opponents, Vettel chose to remain measured.

« We are only at Thursday, we still have time ahead of us.

What happened to Mercedes is strange. But I am almost convinced that they will find an explanation and come back strong on Saturday.

Independently of the other teams, Vettel was at ease during the first stint of FP2, carried out with super-soft tires. The four-time world champion had a three-tenths advantage on this compound in terms of pure performance.

The trend is also good on long stints. Only Kimi Räikkönen is slightly faster than him, if we rely on the times in this type of exercise. The only downside of the day was his delayed start in the early afternoon, twenty minutes after the green light.

« This delay was not anticipated. Nevertheless, we have provided the solution to the problem. So it’s a productive day »!

His goal will indeed be to reclaim pole position on the Monaco circuit. In nine participations, the former Red Bull driver started from the front position only once, in 2011.

Räikkönen: FP1 → 7th, 1:14.164 (36 laps) / FP2 → 3rd, 1:13.283 (45 laps)

With discretion, or almost, Kimi Räikkönen operated a notch below his teammate at each of his outings. Iceman made no mistakes, despite some rather assertive brushes at the Piscine corner or an aborted stint midway through the FP2 session.

Eight-tenths behind Vettel at the end of his first morning stint, the former McLaren driver did not finish much better: seventh, six-tenths behind his teammate in the afternoon.

Today, it has been better and better and that’s the main thing!

The 2007 world champion can console himself with very good times during his race simulations during FP2. His lap times, averaging 1:15, are promising…

In any case, hope is high. The Ferrari team will be in the running for pole position around 3 PM this Saturday, whether Mercedes wakes up or not…