Vettel: Rules nothing to be afraid of

Despite the rule - which stops teams from changing the maps of the engine between qualifying and the race and which believed to be aimed especially at slowing down Red Bull - Vettel said there were no signs of change after practice.

"It was five seconds," Vettel joked when asked about the difference with the new rules.

"No, I can understand that it is news to everyone to get some information but I can only say that it will affect everyone when the rules change, but I don't see us suffering from other people more than others.

"Maybe I will be surprised, maybe not. But from what I judge now, there is nothing to be afraid of."

Vettel finished the day as third quickest, behind the Ferrari of Fernando Alonso and the McLaren of Lewis Hamilton.

The world champion downplayed having finished behind his rivals when asked if they were closing in on Red Bull.

"It is important that we are there or thereabouts, it is tight here," he said. "It changes from circuit to circuit, sometimes the gaps are bigger, sometimes much closer.

"We got to Australia and we were quite a bit quicker than others, then we get to Malaysia and we had to push hard to be on pole position. That is two weeks and nothing changed on the car, it was just a different track."

Team-mate Mark Webber echoed Vettel's thoughts that nothing had changed for Red Bull despite the new regulations.

"Nothing has changed on engine mapping," he said. "McLaren was not slow in Canada and neither was Ferrari, so not much has changed. On all of this subject we wait until Silverstone, as it is a normal GP in terms of the new regulations, at least for us anyway. For us not much has changed."