Sakhir GP: Vettel and Leclerc reflects on tricky Friday

Ferrari struggled during last Sunday’s Bahrain Grand Prix due to long straights at Bahrain International circuit. Team just managed to score one championship point, courtesy of Charles Leclerc’s tenth place finish. And They had a more difficult time of it than expected during Friday free practice for the Sakhir Grand Prix on the Outer Track of the Bahrain International Circuit.

In the first practice session of the penultimate race of the year, Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc classified eighth and tenth respectively. Sebastian’s quickest lap of 55.281 seconds was set on red soft tyres, while his teammate managed 55.449 seconds on the same compound.

But in the second one, the Monegasque driver spent most of the session in the garage due to driveshaft failure on his SF1000,he managed complete just 2 installation laps.

Vettel worked in race configuration doing long runs, but his attempts at the all important qualifying simulation did not go well as he was unable to set a time on the Softs. The German managed to post quickest time of 55.839 seconds on mediums, while his teammate never managed to set a timed lap.

Sebastian Vettel

“We have had a mixed day: the first session was ok, the second was horrible. We tried some setting changes on the car, but the result was a very aggressive car, which is not what we needed. I hope tomorrow we can close the gap and get back on the right track.

This track configuration is maybe a bit too short, almost over before it begins, but it’s ok. Turn 4 is more or less as it was last week, a bit faster because it opens up, then it is bumpy between turn 7 and 8 where the kerbs are very aggressive. This part is quite tricky but it’s not bad.

With 20 cars on track, Q1 will be very tight especially because of the traffic: we have to go very slowly on the cool-down laps to bring the tyre temperatures down and this complicates things. I hope all the drivers will manage to get a clean lap without being impeded, or having too much trouble with traffic. It will be very tight and a few hundredths will make the difference.”

Charles Leclerc

“It was better than expected today. Things were going well until the technical problem at the very beginning of FP2, so hopefully it will be a good day tomorrow. I enjoyed the track with very few corners as it reminds me of the karting days. It’s a nice track and it should be a fun race. With these long straights, whoever is behind will have a big advantage.

Finding a gap tomorrow in qualifying will be my main concern. Especially in Q1 and Q2, which could be messy, I think. The car felt good at the beginning of FP2 so I feel confident we are in a good place, but we still need to see the lap times to confirm this.”