Vettel content with practice form
Sebastian Vettel said he was quietly confident after practice for the title-deciding Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
The Red Bull driver - who comes into the race 15 points behind Fernando Alonso and third in the standings - was quickest in practice one and then second behind Lewis Hamilton in practice two.
"Obviously a very strong early afternoon, and the night was different conditions," said Vettel.
"Overall I am pretty happy, there is a bit of lap time still to gain and now we need to see - we have to see the pace of the other cars, and how strong we are in comparison to them. Hopefully we can pick up the pace and look to tomorrow."
He said there was nothing in the practice results that had changed his expectations of how the critical weekend might unfold.
"I think you never know what to expect unless you have the chance to drive the car," said Vettel. "Now we have had the chance and we are up there. We were always pretty close so it looks quite good, but tight - in the late evening Ferrari looked competitive and McLaren did.
"It was tight as expected, hopefully we can pick up some pace and then be a bit ahead tomorrow."
The German said he was having no trouble with his nerves this weekend despite this being his first experience of a final-round showdown.
"Usually I get tired at night, I don't know what you do, but usually I sleep," Vettel joked when asked if he was expecting a sleepless night ahead of qualifying.
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments