Vettel downplays lack of running

The Red Bull driver, the winner of the first two races, lost control of his car during a wet opening practice session, crashing heavily against the barriers.

As a result of the accident, Vettel was unable to run in the afternoon.

The world champion, however, says the lack of running will not be a big problem.

"It makes it a bit more difficult, no doubt, but I don't think it will be a problem," said Vettel. "We know the track quite well from the past years, and in the end it was only one afternoon we had in the dry.

"We'll see. I'm still confident for tomorrow. Everything is open. It looks fairly close and I think it will be quite exciting tomorrow."

Vettel said he apologised to his mechanics and admitted the most important thing was that he was uninjured.

"You could see there was nothing I could do to stop the car from hitting the wall, so I think the most important thing is that I'm fine," he said.

"Unfortunately we couldn't get the car ready in time. There was a little bit too much damage. I'm sorry for the guys. I apologised because it was not my intention to damage the car. But this is racing and it can happen. I think the most important is that we are still here."

Team-mate Mark Webber enjoyed a more productive session and said Vettel would be relying on his data for Saturday.

"For sure there will be a lot of stuff he will be looking at overnight, it's normal when someone has a rough day the tries to see what we can from the other side of the garage," he said.

The Australian, fifth fastest in the afternoon, conceded the opening session had been very tricky because of the conditions.

"It looks like there are sections of the track where it is hard for the tyres to move the water, which it makes it tricky for us. It's just a shame that some of the corners where those issues are very quick.

"We saw a lot of guys, including myself, have issues in fifth in the little kink which is tricky when it's wet so, that's the way it is. We are learning a lot about the tyres that's for sure."