Sebastian Vettel reckons he has a shot at victory in the Malaysia GP, although being “realistic” he thinks that Mercedes have the measure of Ferrari in dry conditions.
The four-time champion took advantage of heavy rain during Saturday’s qualifying session to break Mercedes’ run of nine straight front-row lock-outs, splitting polesitter Lewis Hamilton and team-mate Nico Rosberg.
Vettel was just 0.074 seconds slower than Hamilton as the Sepang track dried following an earlier thunderstorm. However, the gap in Q1 was more like 0.6s.
Although that’s still closer than the 1.4s gap between the pair in Melbourne two weeks ago, Vettel suggested that he’ll need another downpour on Sunday if he’s to challenge for the win.
“I think, yes, we can [challenge],” he told Sky Sports F1. “It depends on a lot of things which I cannot tell you now. As you saw today, there’s rain in the air; if it comes and hits the track at the right moment for you that can be quite good. It can also work against you as well, so we’ll have to wait and see."
Vettel and team-mate Kimi Raikkonen also showed strong long-run pace in Friday practice while Mercedes’ weekend – and that of Hamilton in particular – has been beset by reliability problems.
“On our own, as you said, the pace looks decent,” Vettel said. “But we also have to be realistic – Mercedes has an advantage which didn’t just disappear.
“Maybe it wasn’t that obvious until now but it is still there. I think, in the end, we have to look after ourselves and everything else we will see.”
Rosberg said he’d prefer to have a closer battle with Ferrari after Vettel finished half a minute behind the Silver Arrows in third at the Australian GP.
“It would be nice obviously to give them a hard time,” a grinning Vettel added. “I think it has been a bit too chilled for them for the last couple of months, so we’ll see what we can do.”
In contrast, Raikkonen was downbeat after being caught out by the rain, which started after cars were only able to manage one flying lap in Q2.
Stuck in a train of cars behind Marcus Ericsson’s Sauber, Hamilton was lucky to progress with the eighth fastest time. Right behind, Raikkonen was only 11th.
“There’s not much that I can do," he told Sky Sports F1. "There’s always a chance to have a difficult first few corners [in the race] if you are out of place. Also it takes our chances away.”