Vettel hindered by hydraulic problems

Vettel completed just four laps in the morning before he stopped with a hydraulic problem.

In the afternoon he managed five laps before hitting similar trouble, leaving him on the back foot ahead of tomorrow and Sunday's race.

"I had hydraulic problems in both sessions," said Vettel. "A shame because I lost a lot of track time and Friday's work is very important. I hardly ran at all and therefore we are lacking information which will be a handicap for the rest of the weekend.

"Obviously, this means the data from the other car will be twice as important as usual. I will try and learn from Sebastien, but relying on your teammate is never as good as finding your own way around the track. Hopefully I can catch up a bit tomorrow morning."

Toro Rosso teammate Sebastien Bourdais had a better day, the Frenchman finishing as 15th quickest.

"Not too bad today," he said. "This morning was the first time I have driven here since the track configuration was changed, so I was finding out what it's like in a Formula One car. That went okay. This afternoon it was the usual programme of evaluating the tyres with different fuel loads.

"The track rubbered in quite a lot towards the end and as I did low fuel runs earlier in the session, this did not show in our later lap times.

"I was struggling a bit on the Option, which I had expected. As this track changes a lot, if you don't have a major problem with the car, it's best to leave it alone and see what happens on the second day. Otherwise, you make changes to the car which are not appropriate for the Saturday conditions. You have to be patient!"