Vettel 'hesitant' to 'unleash himself' at "tricky" track
Vettel 'hesitant' to 'unleash himself' at "tricky" track
Sebastian Vettel feels he "hesitated" too much and lacked the confidence needed to "unleash yourself" on the streets of Baku after finishing a disappointing 15th fastest on the opening day of practice for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Vettel arrived on a high after scoring his first points of the season last time out in Monaco with a stunning drive to fifth place but the Aston Martin driver was brought back down to earth with a deflating performance on Friday.
"I hesitated a little bit," explained Vettel. "I just need to get into a better rhythm earlier in the session. It's a tricky track, you need to have, one, the confidence, and second, unleash yourself. I struggled a bit with that.
"I think I didn't quite get everything out of the soft tyres but I think there were a lot of people that probably had the same issues, just with yellow flags and stuff."
Vettel, who joined Aston Martin from Ferrari this season, has never qualified nor finished a race in Azerbaijan lower than fourth position but with the lacklustre performance of his new team that record is likely to end this weekend.
The German was one of a number of drivers to end up on the escape roads as they pushed to find the limits on the slippery surface having missed out on a visit to the track last season.
The barrier-lined street circuit contains an ominous number of potential incident spots and Vettel explained: "Obviously it's good to decide to go to the escape road rather than having a tight call and being too tight.
"It's good that we kept the car between the walls and not in the walls. We had a good amount of laps, we have a good understanding where the car is so I would say we have done our homework and now we need to focus on performance."
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