Sebastian Vettel concedes pole position was out of reach at the Australian Grand Prix but is confident of taking the fight to Mercedes in Sunday’s race.
After a promising winter, qualifying in Melbourne represented the first real test of Ferrari’s pace.
Vettel ultimately could not match pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton, finishing just three tenths adrift, but edged out Valtteri Bottas to earn his first front-row start since 2015.
Though the German was not entirely happy with his Q3 effort, he was satisfied with Ferrari’s recovery from a “mixed” Friday.
“We have a good car, we are working well as a team, things are improving and it’s nice to see things are working,” the four-time champion said.
“We had a mixed day yesterday but the confidence in the car was there from testing and we showed it again.
“In the end, I was not entirely happy with my lap – pretty happy with the end but maybe not so much with the opening of the lap where we lost a bit too much.
“I think Lewis did a very good lap so, I would have loved to but I don’t think pole was out to grasp.”
Vettel hopes Sunday’s race will underline the progress the team has made after a difficult 2016 as he looks to end a victory drought stretching back to the 2015 Singapore Grand Prix.
“Tomorrow, I think we can do something in the race, the car feels good, we’ve improved it, so the pace should be better than yesterday.
“It has been a big winter for us, we’ve gone through a lot of change as a team in the last 12 months, for the better. People are fired up and we’re motivated for tomorrow, and the start is the first good opportunity.”
The start is indeed a golden chance for Vettel, notoriously strong when the lights go out, to snatch the lead from Hamilton just as he did in 2016.
