Sebastian Vettel is hoping for a repeat of last year as he looks to claim what appears to be an unlikely win at the Russian Grand Prix.
Ferrari simply haven’t had the pace of Mercedes around the Sochi Autodrom and the result was the German finishing over half a second down on the pole time set by Valtteri Bottas.
Starting third, however, Vettel knows not all is lost with he and the Finn having been in the opposite positions in 2017.
“I just spoke to Valtteri and reminded him what happened last year, so maybe we can turn it around,” he said, with Bottas using a slipstream to move into the lead by Turn 2.
“It would be nice, it depends on the start, the initial jump, and then you know where you are and we’ll see what we can do for the first corner but after that it’s a long race, so tricky one but for sure if there’s a gap we’ll go for it.”
Optimising the Hypersoft tyre has been the main issue all weekend for the Italian team as they lacked pace in the technical final sector but both their drivers as well as the two Mercedes will be using the Ultrasoft for the first stint.
“It was important to get as close as possible to them and we’ll see but it’s true they’ve been very quick so we’ll see tomorrow,” Vettel continued. “It is a long race, we’ve seen the tyres are very important.
“Today I think it should have been a bit closer, the gap, but [we had] not enough to be a threat.
“I had a tiny mistake in the last sector but I knew I had to improve by half a second. I had to try, it didn’t work, but I’m quite happy. The car felt alright, so that makes me positive for Sunday.”