Scuderia Ferrari German driver Sebastian Vettel says the Maranello team lacked “a little bit of everything” against Formula 1 rival Mercedes during qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix on Saturday after failing to get in the fight for pole position.
Ferrari arrived in Australia tipped by many as the favourite following an impressive showing through pre-season testing, only for Mercedes to take a one-two in qualifying, with Seb finishing 0.7 seconds behind pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton in third.
The result came as a surprise to many, including the German driver, who admitted Ferrari did not expect to be so far behind.
“The car felt really good at testing, and probably around here so far this weekend, it didn’t feel as good yet,” Vettel said – “Yesterday was a difficult day for us, it was tricky. Today felt a bit better, but there’s not an awful lot of time to try different things. There’s still for us a bit of margin, but certainly the gap is there today, and was a surprise. We didn’t expect it coming here. But now it is that way. We focus on tomorrow and don’t worry about the gap now.”
Hamilton was able to take a sixth consecutive Australian Grand Prix pole ahead of teammate Valtteri Bottas, with Sebastian Vettel failing to get within half a second of either Mercedes car.
Vettel’s teammate, Charles Leclerc, qualified fifth, more than a second in arrears to Hamilton. Asked where he felt Ferrari’s car was lacking compared to Mercedes on Saturday, Sebastian Vettel said it was “a little bit of everything”.
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