Sebastian Vettel stopped by an electronic problem and penalized
The weekend in Russia didn't get off to the best of starts for Sebastian Vettel, who lost a lot of running time due to an electronic problem. But the performance looks interesting all the same.
Sebastian Vettel’s Friday was quite eventful. Indeed, during the first morning session, he made two mistakes. However, these spin-outs did not cause any significant damage to his Ferrari. On the other hand, his afternoon session only lasted half an hour since his car stopped on the track due to an electronic issue, as the man himself explains: “It seems we had an electronic problem but I’m sure we can fix it. Nevertheless, it’s unfortunate because we’re missing laps, especially on long runs with race tires. It would have allowed us to see how competitive we are.”
The pace over one lap seems promising, as the German managed to set the second fastest time in this second session, ahead of Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes. Sebastian Vettel also knows he can rely on the work done by his teammate, Kimi Räikkönen: « Kimi did the work for the team. So it’s not too bad. Moreover, here in Russia, we have a rough idea of what to expect. I think we can still learn a lot from what the others are doing. »
Unfortunately, his problems today will have a significant impact on the rest of his weekend since he was forced to change his gearbox. This will result in a five-place grid penalty.
On the other side of the garage, Kimi Räikkönen encountered no significant problems. However, he positioned himself in 4th place during both sessions. The Finn believed he still had quite a bit of work to refine his settings: « It wasn’t an ideal day. One of those days where you struggle to get the tires working and to have the car you want. I wasn’t able to do a single clean lap but today is just practice. I’m sure we can improve tomorrow. In the end, I think we just need to work on the settings to have it how we want, and it should be fine. »
Ferrari has indeed arrived with new parts, particularly on the engine. The Finn is satisfied with these developments: « We have a new engine and new parts on the car. So far, it has worked well. We wouldn’t use new things if we didn’t expect them to work well. »
