Sebastian Vettel conceded that Ferrari was “quite far away” from its opponents during second practice for Formula 1’s Russian Grand Prix.
Vettel headed the standings after the British Grand Prix but has won just once in the five races since, with title rival Lewis Hamilton victorious at the other four, to open a 40-point advantage.
Vettel edged Max Verstappen in the opening practice session at Sochi but dropped to fifth in the second 90-minute encounter.
In full: Russian GP FP2 results
Vettel’s quickest lap time was over half a second down on the best achieved by Hamilton, who set two laps fast enough for top spot, as Valtteri Bottas cemented a Mercedes 1-2.
The Ferrari driver also had a spin through Turn 13 during his long run simulation.
“Tricky,” Vettel told reporters when asked about his day.
“I mean obviously we were quite far away from the rest of the field so [it’s] not ideal,” he said.
“I think struggling a bit for one lap and also in the long run, I think we went through our tyres a bit harder and quicker than the rest.
“So we need to have a look, but also looking at ourselves it wasn’t a good day in terms of feel for the car, I think there’s more we need to get to.”
A radio message was broadcast in which Vettel told Ferrari “you want me to go through traffic or catch it all the time?” during his long run, and he expanded on the situation after the session.
“Yeah that’s Friday for you, sometimes you have a better Friday, sometimes not,” he said.
“I think for us it wasn’t a particularly clean run in the end, but still good enough.
“I think as I said, we struggled with the tyres with or without traffic. Certainly the traffic doesn’t help, but I think we have some catching up to do.”
Vettel's Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen finished in sixth place, over a second down on Hamilton's best time.
