Vettel expects three-way battle for pole position

After Red Bull topped both practice sessions on Friday, Sebastian Vettel is expecting a three-way battle for pole position for the German Grand Prix.

It has been shown that both Ferrari and Mercedes turn their engines down on a Friday, and they both of course have the infamous “party mode” for Q3.

Despite this, the four-time World Champion believes that the Red Bulls will be in the hunt for pole position on Saturday afternoon.

“Especially for one lap, they are strong. I haven’t seen much of the Red Bulls on the long run. But one lap it definitely is,” Vettel said after practice.

“It seems very close. I think it will be crucial to have a solid day tomorrow and a good result. It always helps and that is what we will try to do.”

One factor for the race on Sunday could be tyre management, with temperatures expected to be hot, leading to blistering on the Pirelli rubber.

On this topic, Vettel was slightly less worried.

“We tried to do a little bit of everything. We succeeded quite well with the tyre choices we had today. We were doing something different across cars as well so I think it was fine,” he continued.

“Our ultra-softs had some blisters at the rear as it is very hot. We will see, the track usually improves ahead of Sunday but we will see. I am happy we weren’t the only ones.”