Vettel encouraged by STR3 progress

Vettel, who finished in fifth place in the Monaco Grand Prix two weeks ago, was ninth quickest after looking strong during the whole afternoon session.

The German, whose Toro Rosso team introduced their new car in Monaco, said he was now feeling more comfortable with the new Ferrari-powered machine.

"Overall, this was a good day for us," admitted Vettel. "It's my first time driving on this track and even though it was wet in the morning, I have to say I like it and it reminded me a bit of the Melbourne circuit.

"We will have to analyse the other guys' times, but I think we are in better shape than we were at the end of the first day in Monaco, which means we are making progress and finding our way with the new car.

"We understand the STR3 better now and I feel more comfortable with it. So a positive day."

Teammate Sebastien Bourdais was not so happy with his day after struggling with his car's using Vettel's set-up.

The Frenchman lost part of the day trying to find a good balance and wound up 17th.

"I had a difficult day, starting with a set-up that was very different to Seb's and I didn't like the car at all," he said. "That meant we lost pretty much all of the morning session as we only began to get to grips with the problem in the afternoon.

"That makes life difficult as you don't know how the track is evolving and how the tyres are working ending up with a car that's not doing what it should. We struggled to identify how to get me the balance I wanted.

"The situation improved in the afternoon, but there is still some work to do tomorrow morning. I had raced here before, but not in F1 and in some ways, that might have been a distraction as the reference points I had from Champ Car were completely wrong.

"I was used to being able to attack the kerbs and you can't do that with this low downforce configuration. Plus the braking points are different and the entry speed into the corners is much higher. I have to forget about the past - it did not help!"