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Vettel confident Ferrari will improve

Photo: © LAT Images

Vettel confident Ferrari will improve

Originally written by Joas van Wingerden. This version is a translation.

Sebastian Vettel is confident that Ferrari can make gains on Mercedes and Red Bull, after struggling to match their pace in Friday testing. Vettel's best lap was half a second off the leading time set by Lewis Hamilton, with Max Verstappen second-fastest.

Hamilton led the way in both qualifying simulations and on long runs, but Verstappen kept him honest, just one tenth down.

Daniel Ricciardo's effort at a flying lap was curtailed by a red flag, leaving Vettel fifth, two tenths behind team-mate Kimi Raikkonen and only just ahead of the Ferrari-powered Haas of Romain Grosjean.

Vettel was a similar way off Hamilton in FP2 last year, but went on to win the season-opener after qualifying second behind Hamilton.

And he is confident that the Scuderia will pick up more time as the weekend goes on.

"I certainly think we have a little bit in hand, I wasn't happy with the lap that I had and with the rhythm and the balance yet so there's more to come," Vettel said.

"That's probably the same for everyone else but I do hope that I can make a bigger step than the others.

"If it's close then it's good, it means that you can do something, so hopefully it stays that close. We'll find out tomorrow.

"I'm not too worried because I know that if I get everything right then we should be in better shape but it looks to be close which is good news."

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