Formula 1

Sebastian Vettel fastest in Bahrain, but problems plague Ferrari

Published Apr. 14, 2017 3:29 p.m. ET

Adam Cooper

Sebastian Vettel was fastest in both practice sessions in Bahrain today, but it was a far from perfect day for Scuderia Ferrari.

Vettel lost time in FP2 when his dashboard switched off and he coasted back to a position where he could be pushed back to the pits. Fortunately the team was able to fix the issue, and he was soon back on track. More worryingly for Ferrari Kimi Raikkonen stopped on track in the first session after hitting power unit issues.

“It must have been some sort of glitch, all of a sudden everything was dark,” said Vettel. “I think as we saw after there was no damage. I think we were lucky that we could recover with the issue happening late in the lap. I’m sure we can fix it. Nowadays cars are not just cars, there’s also a lot of technology or software involved, so obviously something went wrong on that side.”

Valtteri Bottas was second fastest in FP2, while Daniel Ricciardo showed good pace with third place for Red Bull, ahead of Raikkonen and Lewis Hamilton. The Englishman was compromised by having to make three efforts at a fast lap with the softest tires, after a mistake and then traffic caught him out.

“It was incredibly hot early on, with some of the very toughest conditions - both physically and in terms of working with the tires,” said Hamilton. “We got through that and then it was much cooler in the afternoon, giving us a much better representation of what qualifying and the race will be like. I was able to get a much better understanding of where the car is in FP2. It was very close, with Ferrari fastest. In race trim they seem a couple of tenths quicker, so I'm expecting a great battle tomorrow and then again on Sunday.”

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