Vettel admits Ferrari is behind after disappointing practice

Sebastian Vettel has admitted that he and Ferrari are both struggling to get to grips with the Sochi circuit after a disappointingly off-the-pace Friday. Vettel finished half a second down on his championship rival and timesheet-topping Lewis Hamilton, with teammate Kimi Raikkonen a full second down.

Although he might take some solace in the fact that both Red Bull's will be relegated to the back of the field due to grid penalties, he will not be happy to have finished behind both Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen on Friday after the Bull's showed they do have strong pace despite their Renault power units.

Speaking to media after the session, Vettel admitted that the team had work to do on Saturday ahead of a vital race for his and the team's championship hopes.

"I mean obviously we looked quite far away from the rest of the field, so not ideal," he said.

"I think struggling a bit for one lap but also in long run. I think we went through our tyres a bit harder and quicker than the rest, so we need to have a look.

"But also just looking at ourselves, it wasn't a good day in terms of feel for the car. I think there's more that we need to do."

The Ferrari man did add that he felt traffic didn't help his day, although in the car he was far more critical of his Ferrari team dropping him into occupied track space for his race runs.

"That's Friday for you, sometimes you have a better Friday, sometimes not. I think for us it wasn't a particularly clean run in the end, but still good enough.

"I think as I said, we struggled with the tyres with or without traffic. Certainly the traffic doesn't help, but I think we have some catching up to do."