Vettel on the backfoot due to gearbox damage
Sebastian Vettel had a disappointing start to the weekend in Spielberg as a gearbox change was soon found to be necessary after finding terminal damage on the box that he used at Baku tow weeks earlier. Despite the resulting 5-place grid penalty, the German though remains hopeful for a good performance.
The quadruple champion was not sure about the competitiveness of his SF16-H after Friday's outings as the day was interrupted by heavy rain.
"It was a decent day. It is not entirely clear where we stand, as we didn’t have a lot of running due to the weather, in particular in the afternoon, but in general the car feels good."
The German had a torrid end to his opening day as he spun off the track at the hairpin with just 2 minutes left on the clock.
"When I spuan at the end of the second session, I had an issue with brake distribution. It caught me by surprise, but it didn’t matter too much, as I only lost a couple of minutes, and in the end it didn’t make a lot of a difference."
Vettel is a big football fan and he plans to relax with a unique match over the weekend. As a Ferrari driver he faces a difficult task. He has to feel sympathy for Italy, but has to support his own National Team.
"My plans for tomorrow? For sure I will watch the soccer match with the Team. Italy is playing stronger than expected, Germany is quite strong as well, so it should be a good match."
