F1 | Ferrari, Vettel: “We are trying different things to get closer to our rivals”

Eighth time for Sebastian Vettel in the second free practice session of the Austrian Grand Prix. The German's FP2 was affected by a mistake made at the last corner which forced him to abort the fastest lap, thus not allowing him to improve his performance.

The benchmark for the four-time world champion remained that 1'05”871, almost eight tenths from the performance of teammate Charles Leclerc who finished at the top of the time charts on Spielberg's Friday.

Vettel, commenting on the off-track excursion, said: “It didn't have much of an impact on my day. The only disadvantage was not being able to do the long run on the Soft tyres, but at least I was able to stop before the barriers. We are still trying different things to get closer to our rivals and I hope that tomorrow we can do better than today".

"In the afternoon it was quite difficult, also due to the wind. We didn't test new things, rather we tried to understand what happened in France with some of the parts we brought. I think it was useful because we were able to understand which direction to move in with future developments of the car”, the German then underlined.

Discussing the balance of the SF90 he added: “We're not bad in the corners, but I'm convinced that we can still improve, something we already started to do in the afternoon. Perhaps this track helps us due to its characteristics but it still remains a treacherous track, on which it is essential to feel comfortable in the car. This is precisely the aspect we are focusing on the most".

Piero Ladisa

Follow @PieroLadisa