Sebastian Vettel isn’t expecting a repeat of his dominant Singapore performance this weekend in Korea after he failed to beat Mercedes’s Lewis Hamilton to the top spot during both Friday practice sessions.
Whilst Vettel was just a tenth off, he believes Mercedes will present a real challenge on both Saturday and Sunday, regardless of what fuel loads they were running.
“I think Singapore was exceptional in many ways,” he explained. “I think it was close today.
“You don’t know what other people were doing with fuel loads etc, but give or take 10 kilos up or down, it is still quite close and tomorrow in qualifying it will be tight, especially as Mercedes is always performing very well in qualifying.
“There is room for improvement but I think things will be very close this weekend with Mercedes.”
Hamilton was quickest in both FP1 and FP2, though Vettel was second in both, whilst team-mates Nico Rosberg and Mark Webber traded third and fourth.
