Paris (AFP)
Sebastian Vettel announced Thursday to want to "meet on the track" at the Grand Prix of Brazil suspicions of competition on the Ferrari engine, the German began dominating the free practice on Friday.
After a first session reduced to the ridge by the rain, Vettel signed a time of 1 min 09 sec 217/1000 in the second. He is 21/1000 ahead of his Monaco teammate Charles Leclerc (who will be penalized ten places on the starting grid due to a change of engine) and the Dutchman Max Verstappen (Red Bull) of 134/1000.
The Mercedes are coming off with fourth place, 156/1000, for Finland's Valtteri Bottas and fifth, 223/1000, for world champion Lewis Hamilton.
Qualifying (Saturday at 15:00 local / 18:00 GMT) and a race (Sunday at 14:10 / 17:10) successful would be welcome for the Scuderia, to extinguish suspicions around the advantage engine that has since the return of the summer break and several stables are more or less openly questioning compliance with the regulations.
His underperformance during the last GP in the United States (Leclerc 4th, even worse pace for Vettel before its abandonment on break suspension) has indeed occurred after the publication by the International Automobile Federation (FIA) of a technical guideline clarifying how to measure the allowable flow of fuel.
- "Very immature" -
A precision requested by Red Bull, whose pilot Max Verstappen did not hide, in Austin, his doubts about the Scuderia, he accused of having "cheated".
On the eve of the Brazilian round, the FIA has also reaffirmed, "following many questions," its rules prohibiting the burning of oil to gain engine power, said a spokesman of the forum.
She also asked the teams to provide the list of fluids used in their cars and their use, "in order to have better information during (his) tests".
Faced with the press on Thursday on the Brazilian Interlagos circuit, Vettel had already answered Verstappen's words.
"There is not much to say," had swept the German. "I think this comment was very immature ... I do not know because it's irrelevant, we want to answer on the track."
"Mercedes had the best engine in the last five years, it seems like we've had it for six months, I hope it will be the next five seasons and I do not care what people think," he concluded. .
- "Relatively good day" -
To return to the Silver Arrows, Hamilton, crowned for the sixth time in the United States, did not seem worried about the results of these first two sessions.
"It was a pretty good day, we did our job," commented one who only points to a record crown of Germany's Michael Schumacher. "The Ferraris are pretty fast this weekend, or at least they looked like today, they take the best of us just because of the straight lines, it will be interesting to see how things will evolve."
Especially in the race, where the Mercedes took the lead over Ferrari to win the last four GPs, while the German team has only one position at the same time, in Texas.
The free practice 1 having been very limited by the rain, the third and last session Saturday at 12h00 (16h00 / 15h00) will be crucial to refine the settings and be ready for the "qualifiers" of the twentieth and penultimate round of the season .
The weather looks better Saturday and dry Sunday.
Leaving track at the EL2, the Polish Robert Kubica (Williams) and the Russian Daniil Kvyat (Toro Rosso) gave their teams extra work. For the latter, it is a technical problem that caused the incident. His French teammate Pierre Gasly suffered an engine failure.
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