Vettel hoping Ferrari practice times don't reflect true pace

Sebastian Vettel has hushed the suggestions that Ferrari is nowhere near Mercedes after an underwhelming performance from the Maranello team in both Friday practice sessions.

Vettel and teammate Kimi Raikkonen were fifth and sixth following FP1, with a slight improvement in the second session, as Vettel jumped to second and Raikkonen moved up to fourth. 

Despite being tucked into second place after the second session, Vettel was over half a second away from Lewis Hamilton, sparking suggestions that Ferrari has not built a championship challenging car.

When asked if practice times are a reflection of the cars true pace, Vettel said: "I hope not but we'll see. Today is not really that important in the end. It is very important but not when you look at the final standings, one lap time only. I think overall it's been OK.

"We had some small trouble this morning, which cost us some track time so it took a bit longer to get into the groove. Overall I think we can still improve. The car doesn't yet feel as good as it should and as it can. I'm confident we can do something overnight."

Prior to the 2016 season, Ferrari established their own hype by claiming they had a championship winning car ready to take to the track. The SF16-H proved to be a failure as it saw the Prancing Horses slip further behind Mercedes, and surpassed by Red Bull.

This year, Ferrari has kept themselves in the dark, which has allowed fans to build up expectations for them, something Vettel pointed out.

"People from the outside always make up their own opinion, no matter what you tell them but that's how it is. Obviously we've been very happy at testing, times look good, but it doesn't mean anything when you come here and that's when it matters, I think we were realistic about that.

"As I said today was OK, I think the car feels good. It hasn't changed much, I mean it's only two weeks ago we got out of the car but it's good to be back here and as I said we can still improve."

Fergal Walsh