Sebastian Vettel is still confident of having a good weekend in Turkey despite sitting out the second practice session this afternoon whilst his car was repaired after an accident this morning.
The crash happened about half an hour before the end of the first 90 minute session, as the world champion – running intermediate tyres on a soaking track – hit a kerb on the exit of Turn 8 and was spun round into the barrier, causing heavy damage to the car.
“There wasn't much I could do to stop the car from hitting the wall this morning – but the most important thing is that I'm fine,” said Vettel. “Unfortunately we couldn't get the car ready in time for this afternoon's session, as there was too much damage, so I'm sorry to the guys.
“It makes things a bit more difficult, but I don't think it will be a problem, we know the track well from other years and, in the end, it was only one afternoon that we have lost. I'm still confident – it looks pretty close. I was able to watch the times today, which was something different.”
Vettel’s Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber had a much better day, completing 31 laps in the dry afternoon session, and finishing fifth on the timesheets.
“We learned quite a lot today,” he said. “It's a pretty challenging venue here with the new regulations -so it was tricky for us all with the weather this morning. We had to fit a lot of our planned work into this afternoon, but it went smoothly.
“Sebastian had an issue this morning which could happen to any of us; it just shows you can lose a session very easily. The team will share the data that we gathered this afternoon. KERS worked pretty well this afternoon – each time we use it we get more experience so, so far so good.”
