Vettel frustrated with traffic after Alonso "idiot" blast
Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel admits he was overwhelmed by the amount of traffic he encountered in Friday practice in Mexico, having dubbed Fernando Alonso an "idiot" in FP2.
Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari SF16-H
XPB Images
Baulked by the McLaren driver, Vettel voiced his displeasure with Alonso after the Spaniard ran wide at Turn 12.
Vettel ended up setting the Friday pace, but says he didn't get a good feel for his pace because of recurring traffic woes.
"Maybe it was just me today, but I felt that I was actually in Mexico City, not on the race track, with a lot of traffic," Vettel said.
"I guess everybody was fighting with the same problems, making the tyres last, especially the supersoft.
"I don't know entirely, because I had so much traffic, and I didn't have successive laps.
"I think overall the pace was good, which was the more important thing. We can still improve for tomorrow, and then go from there."
Topping Friday "doesn't mean anything"
Having headed nearest rival Lewis Hamilton by 0.004s in FP2, Vettel downplayed Ferrari's pace, saying Hamilton likely had more speed "in the pocket".
"I think overall it was a good day," Vettel said of his Friday running.
"For sure it's nice to be first after the practice, but it doesn't mean anything today. We had a good day, the car seems to work, we didn't have any problems, we got through the sequence ahead of schedule, so in that regard it was a good day.
"I think Lewis's lap didn't look particularly good, so I think he has a little bit more in the pocket. Tomorrow we need to be realistic. I mean, if it's like this tomorrow, we'll take it for sure.
"We had a very good day, not judging the results, just judging the feeling, overall pace, not for one lap that we did. And we didn't have any problems, we were always ahead of schedule leaving the garage."
Looking ahead to the rest of the weekend, Vettel added: "Hopefully we can be on the podium. I think you sort of sense in the car, when you also struggle with traffic, when you're catching the other people, that you're quick.
"It can't get any worse than last year, because both of us didn't finish the race. But the pace was already very good last year, so it seems that there might be something about Mexico City that suits Ferrari, and hopefully we can carry that momentum into tomorrow.
"It's difficult to say, it's not the right time to get excited, if we have the same position tomorrow afternoon, then we can be excited."
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