Friday: Vettel and Red Bull in Pursuit of the Mercedes
For much of the day, the Red Bulls, particularly Sebastian Vettel, were trailing but have closed in on the Mercedes. However, there is still work to be done, especially for Daniel Ricciardo.
Sebastian Vettel (No. 1) – 4th and 3rd
The German had some issues during FP1, but was ultimately able to make up for it in FP2: « It was a bit unfortunate to lose track time; there was something with the gearbox, but luckily we checked it and got back out. As a result, we might have been a bit off the pace compared to others, but it seemed good, and we still completed some laps. I think there are still plenty of improvements to be made, the Mercedes are very fast, but it was a good way to start the weekend. »
Daniel Ricciardo (No. 3) – 6th and 12th
If his impressions were good, the result in terms of times was not up to par: « The driving was good today, but looking at the timesheet, we still have work to do! We had some good benchmarks and we need to work tonight – I enjoyed driving here and there are a lot of fans in the stands. »
« It seems that we are close to a few other teams, so we just have to extract as much as possible from the cars over the weekend, » he explains.
