Ferrari didn't have a super strong start to their Brazilian race campaign on day one at the Interlagos circuit in Sao Paulo Brazil.
Drivers Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen finished the opening ninety minute practice session down the order in ninth and tenth places respectively, the duo separated by a mere two thousandths of a second.
Sebastian Vettel posted a best time of 1.13.567 to finish ahead of Kimi Raikkonen who did a 1.13.569.
Kimi tried a Halo system on his installation lap then worked on a programme that featured the use of data acquisition sensors.
For the second session, both men ran qualifying simulations, followed by race simulations. Towards, the end, Kimi's session was disrupted by a problem with the left rear brake, after a tear-off visor from another driver blocked the cooling duct.
“It was a pretty normal Friday: we tried different things to make it better for tomorrow,” Kimi said. “It was a bit tricky to find the balance, the set-up is not ideal yet, but we are going in the right direction. I only did a few laps with the Soft, it felt pretty ok and obviously it has the best grip. Unfortunately at the end of the second session we had an issue with one visor which obstructed the cooling duct: the brakes overheated and I had to stop.”
Meanwhile, teammate Sebastian Vettel is happy enough with the car and firmly believes that his race pace is a lot better than the pace displayed over one flying lap…
“I think it was a tricky day. The track was very slippery, the temperature hot, and I think everybody was struggling with the tires,” h explained. “It was a bit difficult to find the rhythm. The long run was a bit better for us: I haven't seen what the others were doing, but I felt a bit more confident with more time and more laps in the car.”
“So in total we tried a lot of things, and now we need to go and see what actually was best. Towards the end of the day it seemed to calm down a bit more, finding the rhythm, which wasn't the case for the short run, for the fast lap, where I wasn't very happy. The good news today are that the gaps were very close. Mercedes for sure, as expected, is a bit up front: but other than that, if it stays like this, it bodes well for tomorrow.”
