Sebastian Vettel insists Ferrari is “not the fastest” and still has a “reasonable gap” to Mercedes despite topping Friday practice for ෴Formula 1’s Canadian Grand Prix.

Charles Leclerc headed a Ferrari 1-2 to 🔯end the opening day of practice in Montreal q⭕uickest, with a gap of 0.134s to the fastest Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas in third.

The Scuderia had languished around a secᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚond behind its chief rivals in FP1 but recovered strongly in the afternoon, though Vettel is refusing to get carried away by his team’s slender advantage.

“We’re not the fastest,” Vettel admitted.

“I know that in terms of results, if you look at the one-lap performance it look𝄹s maybe like that this afternoon ♐[we are], but I think there’s still quite a reasonable gap to Mercedes.

“Obviously today was not 💟the most transparent session with other people running into problems.

𓆉“Also the car feels not yet the way I want it, so we have some - I wouldn’t say tricks up our sleeve - but some stuff we want to try and get a read on, so we’ll see.”

The German reckons tyres will have a big role to play in the remainder of the weekend after a number of drivers struggled with degradation in the warm afternoon conditions, while temperatures are expected to rise on Sund🐷ay.

“It’s been an inte𓃲resting session,” Vettel explained. “Obviously quite slippery and ꧅quite dirty to start with, but I think the track will improve the whole weekend so the key will be to go with the track.

“We will see, not a great day in terms of tyre🐷s because they didn’t last vಌery long but we will see what we can do tomorrow.

“Overal🥃l I think it was not so bad bu💖t we certainly need to improve if we want to put the car in a very good position for Sunday’s race.

“We’ll see what happens tomorrow in qual🌱ifying and the strategy that everybody picks for the race.”