Sebastian Vettel has described the opening day of the 2018 Monaco Grand Prix as “decent”, after setting the third best time in the second free practice session.
The morning’s first session saw Vettel out-paced by both Aston Martin Red Bull Racing cars and Lewis Hamilton, the German’s time almost a second slower than that of pace-setting Daniel Ricciardo.
Vettel improved his time in the afternoon to a 1:12.413 but was still some way off the pace of the Red Bulls. Nonetheless, last year’s Monaco winner is content with his day’s running and sees Scuderia Ferrari improving as the weekend continues.
“I think it was a decent day,” said Vettel. “In Monaco there’s always traffic, and today we had the red flag [to secure a loose man-hole cover], so that it was a bit messy. It’s not that easy to get everything together in a lap here.
“I am not entirely happy about the second and the last sector. So, I think there’s something we can do better. I believe we got the best out of the tires and on Saturday it will be very close.”
Despite saying that the SF71H needs to improve, Vettel says he’s happy to let his car slide around the unforgiving streets.
“There isn’t more pressure on this track than on the others, but I think it’s more fun. The track is very challenging and you have no room for mistakes but it’s quite enjoyable.
“You think twice before trying something here. However, I have a good feeling with the car.
“Today I trusted my car and even if I was sliding a little bit, I knew I wouldn’t have touched the barrier. We still need to improve, but generally it’s good fun driving around”.
