Sebastian Vettel says Ferrari has more pace yet t𒉰o “unleash” as he targets putting pressure on Formula 1 rivals Mer♏cedes in Bahrain. 

Ferrari bounced back from its disappointing performance in Australꦗia to dominate the opening day of practice for this weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix, with Vettel ending the second session 0.603s clear of Lewis🍬 Hamilton’s Mercedes. 

He edged out new teammate Charles Leclerc by just 0.035s as the Italian team comfortab📖ly led the way🧜 in both sessions, though Vettel insisted he is not paying “too much attention” on Friday’s results. 

“We hope to be in b🦋etter shape and much closer than Melbourne,” Vettel said. 

“Today the result was good and we were probably on a different strategy to 🐟other people so I wouldn’t put too much attention on that. I think for tomorrow we still need to improve, especially Mercedes looks very fast.

“Today was a better day for us overall but I think certainly we nee♏d to pick up pace for tomorrow. We started off in a better place, 🐠but still I feel that we have some more potential in the car that we have to unleash for tomorrow.

“I think if we unleash that then we should be in goodꦕ shape tomorrow and hopefully we can be a lot closer and put Mercedes under pr🐷essure.”

Vettel𝓰 admitted he is not yet back to having the same feeling as in Barcꦦelona testing but is happy with the progress made. 

“It’s less bumpy, but that comes with the track and I think [I 🌞have] more trust in the rear, which was let’s say o🎶ur achilles heel in Australia,” he added. 

“It wa🍃s certainly𒐪 better today. Obviously the track’s different but I think we still need to find something. I’m not entirely happy with today, I just don’t have the feeling yet that I want to have.”

Leclerc, who topped the opening session ahead of Vettel, said he had gained more confidence in h♏is SF90 co🐻mpared to Melbourne. 

“It’s a bit better, a bit closer,” L﷽eclerc explained. “I think the confidence for us drivers driving the car is better than in Australia, 🌠that's for sure, on my side at least. 

“Then we'll obviously see tomorrow because 🍰ꦫit's in the end the only day that counts. So, hopefully we'll make the right choices with the changes we are going to do on the car, and hopefully I will put everything together in qualifying.”