Ferrari can improve on ‘strange’ Russian GP Friday - Vettel

Sebastian Vettel says Ferrari has improvements to make after a “strange” day of running during Friday practice for Formula 1’s Russian Grand Prix.

Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc topped the opening session in Sochi before Max Verstappen hit the top of the timesheets for Red Bull in the afternoon.

Vettel was half a second adrift with the third-fastest time of FP1 before falling a second off the pace in FP2 as he fell to fifth spot.

“It was a bit strange,” Vettel said of his day. “We tried some stuff, and we need to decide what to keep and what to get rid of.

“Red Bull looked really quick this morning and also in the afternoon, especially in Sector 3.

“I think we can improve, especially in terms of balance, we’ll put it altogether and it should be a better day tomorrow.

“How much time we can manage? It’s difficult to know. But tomorrow we are on the good side of things.”

The German, who won last time out at the Singapore Grand Prix in a result that stunned its rivals, revealed Ferrari had been testing a number of car set-ups throughout Friday in a bid to make gains through the slow-speed corners at the Sochi Autodrom as it looks to continue to pile the pressure on its chief rival Mercedes.

“Some runs were good, some were not, so obviously we need to make sure we understand exactly why, and decide for the right things,” he explained.

“But I’m quite happy. The car was good as some stage today, so I’m pretty confident it will be tomorrow.”