Vettel aiming for Ferrari’s first title since 2007; Hamilton fastest in testing
BARCELONA: Sebastian Vettel has vowed to end Ferrari’s decadelong championship drought by beating Lewis Hamilton to the Formula One world title.
Ferrari made a giant step last winter to challenge Hamilton’s allconquering Mercedes team, and at one stage Vettel was 25 points clear of his rival in the championship race.
But the Vettel/Ferrari assault faded in the second half of last season following a catalogue of driver and team failures, and the German was victorious at just one race after the summer break.
Hamilton raced to championship glory with two grands prix to spare, but Vettel (30) hopes Ferrari can narrow the gap again and score Ferrari’s first title triumph since Kimi Raikkonen won the world championship back in 2007.
Vettel, who claimed the last of his four successive titles in 2013, said: ‘‘It is inevitable that everyone gets older, but it is always too long if the wait for a title is more than one year.
‘‘I want to make sure that I can bring that championship back to Maranello. That is our big ambition and that is our target.
‘‘Mercedes are the favourites, but if we can be close, very close, and closer than last year, that will be great.
‘‘It is a long year. It is only March now, but we will keep going until the end of November when the season ends.’’
Hamilton led the fourth day of F1 testing yesterday, when teams made up for lost time caused by this week’s bad weather.
It was a busy day at the Circuit de CatalunyaBarcelona after snow and cold temperatures kept most cars in the garage on Thursday.
Temperatures improved yesterday for the final session.
Hamilton posted a lap of 1min 19.333sec, the best of the week.
He was half a second faster than Stoffel Vandoorne of McLaren, who set his time on the faster hypersoft tyres.
Vettel, last year’s runnerup in the drivers’ championship, was thirdfastest, nearly a second behind Hamilton.
Pierre Gasly’s Hondapowered Toro Rosso led the lap charts with 147. Vettel was next with 120 laps, followed by Vandoorne’s 110. Hamilton ended the day with 69.
Twotimes world champion Fernando Alonso, the only driver to post a time on Thursday, was fifthfastest after running 51 laps in his McLaren.
Kevin Magnussen was fourthfastest with Hass.
Marcus Ericsson went off the track in his Sauber, followed later by Max Verstappen in a Red Bull.
The 2018 Formula 1 season starts in Melbourne on March 25. — BPA