MEXICO CITY, Mexico -- Sebastian Vettel has refused to get excited about Ferrari's strong one-lap pace during Friday practice at the Mexican Grand Prix, but says his team had a positive day at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.
Vettel finished the session 0.004s ahead of Lewis Hamilton as the Ferrari appeared to be better suited to the low grip conditions. Mercedes habitually runs lower power settings on Friday, but even with Hamilton ahead of Vettel the pace of the Ferrari still represents a big step forward compared to the last round in Austin.
"I think Lewis' lap didn't look particularly good, so I think he has a little bit more in the pocket," Vettel said. "But our pace was already very good last year, so it seems 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 Friday after all, so not the time to get excited. If we are in the same position tomorrow afternoon then we can be excited.
"Overall, we had a very good day, not judging the result but just judging the feeling of overall pace, and not just for one lap but all the laps we did. And we didn't have any problems and we were ahead of schedule leaving the garage, which is a very good sign. So overall a very good day."
Vettel complained about traffic over the radio a number of times and afterwards compared the situation to driving on Mexico City's clogged highways.
"Maybe it was just me today, but I felt that I was actually in Mexico City and not on the track today because there was so much traffic. I guess everybody was fighting with the same problems of making the tyres last, especially with the super-softs.
"I don't know entirely because I had so much traffic that I didn't have successive laps. But overall the pace was good, so that's the more important thing. I think we can still improve tomorrow and go from there."