• Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - FP2

Vettel sees McLaren as main rival in Abu Dhabi

ESPN Staff
November 2, 2012 « Button feels improvement from India | More pace in updated Lotus - Raikkonen »
Sebastian Vettel was 0.168s faster than Lewis Hamilton in FP2 © Getty Images
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Sebastian Vettel thinks the McLarens will be his main competition at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix after topping the timesheets in Friday practice ahead of Lewis Hamilton.

Vettel's best time was 0.168s faster than Hamilton with the Red Bull slightly slower in sector one but faster in sector three. His title rival Fernando Alonso finished the session seventh and 0.836s off the pace and Vettel said he saw McLaren as his main rivals.

"I think we can be happy with today," Vettel said. "Overall we got a good lap on the soft tyres, but in general pace the McLaren's were quick and seem competitive, so they're the ones we need to look out for and beat. We need to improve the car overnight to qualify as high as we can tomorrow."

He added: "Today the battle was with [Hamilton] and he was very quick on the medium tyre. We need to do a little bit of catching up to make sure we are very close to them if not ahead of them tomorrow."

Vettel said the driving conditions had been tricky on Friday.

"The pace wasn't bad but it was quite slippery today for all the drivers and we saw many cars going off the track here and there. We tried to explore the limits as much as possible for a Friday, but as I said we need to make sure we improve the car for tomorrow."

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