• Italian Grand Prix - FP2

Vettel plays down Friday pace at Monza

ESPNF1 Staff
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Sebastian Vettel remains wary of the pace of his rivals around Monza © Getty Images
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Sebastian Vettel played down the significance of setting the fastest lap time of the day after Friday's free practice session for the Italian Grand Prix.

"It was quite good today," said Vettel. "It's a Friday, so the laptimes vary and you don't know what the fuel loads are, but I'm quite confident. It looks better for us here than it did a year ago. Obviously here is no KERS this year, which helps us. We need to be patient and we'll see the true pace tomorrow. "

Vettel, who jumped to the top of the lap times during the final 20 minutes of the session, remains wary of the pace of title rivals McLaren and Ferrari who are the favoured teams on the low-downforce Monza circuit.

"McLaren is extremely quick and their cars went off a couple of times, so I don't know if they had a clean afternoon. Ferrari was quick in the afternoon too, it will be tight. It's a short lap here with a lot of short straights and not so many corners - the gap between cars will be very small."

Team-mate Mark Webber finished the day sixth fastest, his final session compromised by a mechanical failure.

"I lost water pressure in P2 and had to stop the car, which compromised our running a little bit, but we still got some good information today," said Webber. "The car is going pretty well. I have to find a little bit of lap time myself, but the car is performing and I'm quite happy. We'll see how we go tomorrow, but we're in the ballpark which is nice. Ferrari look strong as well."

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