Valtteri Bottas believes Ferrari disguised their true pace in practice for the French Grand Prix.
Mercedes lapped over eight-tenths of a second quicker than their closest championship rivals. Bottas, who only covered seven laps in second practice due to a water leak, admitted “we definitely looked competitive today in both sessions.”
“Lewis [Hamilton] got a really good lap in FP2 as well,” he added. “I think we’re going to be competitive.”
“But we’ve seen [on] Fridays that Ferrari have been sandbagging. I think they are doing it again, so let’s see tomorrow and on Sunday.”Sebastian Vettel believes Ferrari are “a little bit behind” on one-lap pace but is confident they will be closer in qualifying.
“I think it’s understanding what the car needs [and] what I need to do with the car. On one lap [it] didn’t come together, I didn’t put great laps in and therefore I’m not too stressed about the one-lap performance.
“Usually come quali we are able to pick up the pace. For tonight I need to understand I need to do to the car and what we can do on top of that to make the car faster and then we should be fine.”
Vettel said he got a better feel for how his car was handling during his race simulation. “I seemed to struggle a bit this morning and this afternoon. I think in the long run it was starting to come a little bit more together with more successive laps. So let’s see.
“I feel the car has more potential, it’s definitely there, but I wasn’t able to get it. Hopefully we can find something tonight and I need to have a good night’s sleep and then we should be OK.”
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Jere (@jerejj)
22nd June 2018, 21:13
As always typical Friday stuff, so nothing new on this front.
javier javier (@j3d89)
23rd June 2018, 3:04
i seriously doubt this will be the case… yes ferrari is sand bagging and yes they will turn it up for qualy and be faster than redbull but i feel this race is mercedes, the upgraded engine is getting more than what ferrari got with their update
Gabriel (@rethla)
23rd June 2018, 0:36
If theres something Bottas knows about it is sandbagging so i will trust him blindly in this.
Ju88sy (@)
23rd June 2018, 6:26
Well that is normal for Ferrari, however as Bottas indicated Mercedes are yet to run the new PU at full tilt. Arguably both are sandbagging! Looks very much like a Merc vs Ferrari pole shootout.
Dewald Nel (@ho3n3r)
23rd June 2018, 8:44
Mercedes are the masters of sandbagging, so the Ferrari judgement can stop.
Palle (@palle)
23rd June 2018, 11:19
@ho3n3r – I don’t consider at as more than information that driver X believes Team Y is sandbagging in this session – and so what? Sandbagging isn’t illegal – it’s part of the overall tactical game in a race weekend.
Alonso (@alonshow)
23rd June 2018, 15:34
How can one tell that a team is sandbagging (apart from the case when they tell you directly, as Bottas has done)?