Formula 1 championship leader Sebastian Vettel moved to play down his lack of pace during Friday practice at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, blaming his deficit on a scruffy display.
Vettel finished at the foot of the top 10 in the opening session at the Baku City Circuit, and suffered three off-track excursions during second practice.
Vettel’s best effort left him down in 11th position, 1.3s behind leader Daniel Ricciardo, but the German exuded calm over his standing in the pecking order.
In full: Azerbaijan GP FP2 results
“I think that in this place it is quite tricky to find the rhythm and in the first session I didn’t,” said Vettel.
“At the beginning of the second one I lacked pace and could not put the lap together, but that can happen very easily here.
“I made some mistakes under braking, but I think that the long run was a little better.
“I think we can improve the car for tomorrow and it should be ok. It is all in me: the car is fine. I didn't get the laps together.”
Kimi Raikkonen, meanwhile, finished only 15th in the lunchtime session as Ferrari conducted set-up tweaks on his SF71-H, but vaulted up to second in the afternoon running.
Raikkonen’s best lap was just 0.069s slower than Ricciardo’s session-leading effort.
“It was not very easy to start with, so during the first practice we decided to switch to a different set-up,” said Raikkonen.
“Unfortunately these kind of changes take quite a long time, but I’d rather skip or lose some track time in the first session and be ready in the second one.
“All in all, it was the right decision and our P2 was pretty decent.
“For sure there are things to improve as always, but we were not far from the top today. I think the long run was ok, the race pace looks good.”
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