Formula 1

Vettel not captain of his ship in Barcelona practice

Published May. 12, 2017 1:44 p.m. ET

Adam Cooper

Sebastian Vettel joked that he wasn’t in charge of his Ferrari in Barcelona practice on Friday after windy conditions made life difficult for the drivers.

Vettel, Max Verstappen and Valtteri Bottas were among the drivers to take trips off the road, albeit without any consequences. Vettel ended the day some 0.4s shy of the pace-setting Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton, and slower than teammate Kimi Raikkonen, after a frustrating day.

“I'm not happy,” he said. “I'm struggling a bit to find the rhythm, I'm struggling a bit with the conditions. probably more myself than the car. I didn't get everything together. I wasn't too happy but I can feel the car is quick so that is good. I'm not worried. I'm just not happy with how the day went.

“I wasn't always feeling like I was captain on board. Sometimes somebody else was steering my ship. And I hope tomorrow, whoever that was, will disappear."

He added: “I think today was quite a shocker, if you look at the long runs. I had a very short glimpse and everybody was struggling with the conditions. I was on the medium, it was quite slippery, and very interesting.”

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