Vettel missing rhythm as Ferrari pace gathers

Sebastian Vettel has warned Ferrari has plenty more performance to find at the Canadian Grand Prix while he also feels he’s lacking the rhythm to battle the front-runners at Montreal after Friday practice.

The German driver ended the second free practice session in a low-key fifth place for Ferrari, 0.787s off timesheet-topper Max Verstappen for Red Bull, while also completing significantly fewer laps than his major rivals in sessions stalled by red flag stoppages.

Vettel shrugged off the pace deficit as he feels he’s yet to find the maximum from his Ferrari, having also seen teammate Kimi Raikkonen end the day second-quickest and over half a second faster, while he lacks a comfortable feeling with his car.

“It was a bit mixed today so I’m not entirely happy with the feel inside the car yet,” Vettel said. “Some things that we tried and some things that I think we need to work on.

“I also didn’t get the rhythm yet so missing a little bit of the laps but overall we tried to go through the programme as good as we could.

“Today we’re not the favourites. Kimi I think was happier on one lap so probably he’s one of the favourites, I’m not, but we’ll see tomorrow.”

Vettel, who hasn’t won since his storming start to 2018 with victories in the opening two F1 rounds, is hunting his second victory in Canada since his maiden win back in 2013 which came with Red Bull.