The first day back at school for the Scuderia Ferrari boys ran smoothly as Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen went about their day’s scheduled program of working on set up and balance of their SF70H’s around the Albert park circuit in Melbourne Australia.
The dirty track conditions and the different fuel loads used make it impossible to give an accurate assessment of the relative performance levels, however Sebastian finished the day second overall behind the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton.
“On Friday, it is always difficult to say much. Anyway, it was nice to be back in the cockpit again. In the first session, we had a few small problems which slowed us down a bit, but things went better in the second one. As for the balance, today wasn’t bad, but there is still room for improvement. The lap times don’t mean anything. Only tomorrow will we find out what the score is.”
Raikkonen, who finished fourth overall behind the second Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas, expressed pretty much the same sentiments.
“We can be pleased, because overall the day didn’t go badly. We learned a lot of things and now we know in which areas we have to improve. As for performance, you cannot compare it to winter testing, partly because this is a bit of an unusual track and doesn’t produce a clear picture of the situation.”
Seb completed 45 laps over the two sessions (10+35,) while Kimi racked up 16 in the first part and 30 in the second.
