Sebastian Vettel is adamant Ferrari still have a large amount of work ahead in order to be more competitive throughout the weekend. The German has not dealt with the most idyllic Friday in his career, as he touched the wall in FP1 and later in FP2 could not rack up enough mileage due to an issue the team has not commented on yet.

“I am not entirely happy with the feeling on the car yet, especially with some things that we tried. And we need to work on others. I didn’t get the rhythm yet, and I’m also missing a little bit on the laps but we tried to go through the programme.

"Today we were not the favourites. Kimi was happier with the laps, while I’m not happy. I haven’t seen much on the others. We need a little bit of time to understand the full picture but putting all together with our updates will help us to get ahead tomorrow."

"I didn’t get a lot of laps, so I’m curious to see what the others did. It’s difficult to see where we are at the moment before Sunday so in terms of strategy there could be some surprises. But now we will try to do our homework and get there".

Kimi Raikkonen placed 5th in FP1 and stunned to P2 in the second free practice session, only 0.130s off Max Verstappen. The Finn has his day on the track conditions, which he regarded as 'shocking' at first.

"It's tricky here with low downforce, high bumps and a lot of kerbs to run over. -he said-You always try to go as straight as you can on the chicane, even if it's difficult. However, we got through the programme towards the end. There are still things to do still, but we are going in the right direction.

"It’s a bit of a shock here at first with low downforce. You often have to shortcut the chicane, as it doesn’t feel the most comfortable because there’s not much grip and you’re bouncing around, but that is combination you get used to."