Sebastian Vettel has said that he and the Aston Martin team need to be 'realistic' about qualifying later today at the Canadian Grand Prix, despite looking very quick in practice on Friday.

The four-time world champion is in decent form at the moment with a couple of top ten finishes in his last two races, and in Baku he looked very strong as he came home in sixth.

Certainly, it looks as though the AMR22 is responding nicely to the upgrades they first introduced at the Spanish Grand Prix and Vettel appears to be extracting a great deal out of the package, with him going fourth fastest in FP2 and also finishing inside the top ten in FP1 earlier on on Friday in Montreal.

Could we see the German up towards the sharp end of the grid for Sunday's race, then? He's looking to keep a lid on expectations but says he's excited about what the rest of the weekend could have in store, including the unpredictable weather conditions:

“This is a tricky circuit to get right, especially after a couple of years away – I lost the car a couple of times on the approach to Turn One – but, overall, the car was pretty well behaved.

"Still, I think we need to be realistic about qualifying tomorrow; we’re improving all the time but we still have some work to do. I think Saturday could be tricky – the conditions have been unpredictable all weekend and it looks likely to be another wet-dry day. But I’m looking forward to whatever the weather throws at us.”

MONTREAL, QUEBEC - JUNE 17: Sebastian Vettel of Germany driving the (5) Aston Martin AMR22 Mercedes on track during practice ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of Canada at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on June 17, 2022 in Montreal, Quebec. (Photo by Clive Rose/Getty Images)

Vettel is looking really motivated at the moment and that is great to see, with the Aston team making clear strides in terms of their performance.

They won't be getting ahead of themselves, but more points this weekend in Canada could well be the target.