Sebastian Vettel rues 'scrappy' Monaco GP practice for Ferrari
Sebastian Vettel described Ferrari's first day of practice ahead of Formula 1's Monaco Grand Prix as "scrappy" after he and Kimi Raikkonen struggled on Thursday
Raikkonen was the quicker of the two Ferrari drivers in practice two, but he was seventh and 1.4 seconds off the pace, behind both Mercedes, Red Bulls and Toro Rossos.
Vettel was only ninth quickest and twice hit the barriers, damaging a rear wing and a wheel-rim in accidents at Mirabeau and Ste Devote respectively.
"Overall it was a bit of a scrappy day," Vettel told reporters afterwards.
"It's OK, the pace is in the car - I struggled a bit to get it out.
"I certainly tried a lot. Not everything worked."
Vettel admitted he did not have his best day in the car either, but he feels Thursday's running was not a true representation of Ferrari's competitiveness.
"All in all it was not a clean day in the office," he said.
"I didn't get the rhythm, I didn't get good laps on the ultra-soft [tyre].
"In the end it's my fault if I go in too deep and touch the barrier.
"Yes we could have done a better job, I could have done a better job, but that's how it goes sometimes.
"It's fair to say that just inside the top 10 is not where we belong and the car is a lot quicker than that.
"For today it was not the main focus to be high up - the running we had was a bit scrappy.
"Saturday is when it matters - qualifying is very important around here. There's a lot of stuff we learned today."
RAIKKONEN HITS OUT
Raikkonen was relaxed about Ferrari's fortunes, but he did not respond well to negative questioning about a difficult day of practice.
"You put it like it's a massive issue, but people make mistakes, that's fine in practice," he told TV crews post-session.
"I don't understand how you try to make a massive...it's crazy questions.
"It's practice, it's not ideal, but how many [ideal sessions] have there been?
"It is what it is. There's still a lot to improve and hopefully we can improve it.
"Obviously there is some work to do but it was better this afternoon than this morning so we improved."
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About this article
| Series | Formula 1 |
| Drivers | Sebastian Vettel |
| Teams | Ferrari |
| Author | Lawrence Barretto |
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