Sebastian Vettel believes tyre-management as much as sheer pace will decide the outcome of this weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix.
After two closely-fought free practice sessions at a hot and becalmed Bahrain International Circuit on Friday, Vettel, who won last year despite failing to dominate any practice or qualifying session, conceded that both Ferrari and Lotus had demonstrated greater pace than his Red Bull team.
Felipe Massa, of Ferrari, and then Kimi Raikkonen of Lotus, topped the times in the two 90-minute sessions.
“Ferrari was pretty strong today, Lotus as well, Mercedes – who knows? Maybe a little bit behind. It is only free practice, but it is pretty close isn’t it?” the triple defending champion said.
“But it will be very close tomorrow (Saturday) in qualifying and it matters a lot to work with the tyres around this track.
“The one who succeeds tomorrow will be on pole and the one who succeeds on Sunday will win the race.”
Raikkonen clocked a best lap in one minute and 34.154 seconds on his medium tyres midway through the afternoon to outpace Vettel’s Red Bull teammate Mark Webber by 0.03 seconds.
Webber, preparing for his 200th Formula One race on Sunday, clocked 1:34.184 to finish ahead of Vettel by almost one-tenth of a second, a slim advantage but enough to create a sub-plot around further intra-team shenanigans in Sunday’s race.
After the agony and angst of their early-season problems, triggered by the ruthless Vettel’s decision to ignore team orders and snatch victory from Webber in Malaysia, this was a demonstration by the Australian that he has no intention of doing anything other than race to win.
Two-time champion and winner of last Sunday’s Chinese Grand Prix Fernando Alonso was fourth for Ferrari ahead of Paul di Resta of Force India, Massa, and Romain Grosjean in the second completely new Lotus chassis.
German Nico Rosberg was eighth for Mercedes ahead of compatriot Adrian Sutil in the second Force India car and Lewis Hamilton, in the second Mercedes.
A perplexed Hamilton said: “I don’t really know where we are losing it. They have changed the car this weekend, changed the settings for what they think the track needs but I’m not convinced it is the right way to go.”
Jenson Button, seeking to close the performance gap to the leaders in his improving McLaren, was unable to rise beyond 11th, a full 1.2 seconds slower than Raikkonen.
As practice went ahead and after clashes between radical groups and police overnight opposition groups demanding more political freedoms in the Gulf kingdom announced plans to protest.
But there was no evidence of unrest in and around the track.
