Mercedes boss Toto Wolff feels Ferrari had the quicker car at the 2017 Formula 1 season opener in Australia.
Lewis Hamilton lined up on pole position for the team, but he lost out to Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel in the race.
He led the opening stint before pitting before Vettel and getting stuck behind Max Verstappen, which gave Vettel the opportunity to emerge from his stop ahead.
Hamilton finished 10 seconds behind Vettel by the race finish to claim second, with his new team-mate Valtteri Bottas third on his Mercedes debut.
“Some races you win, some races you lose, and when the days come where another team has done a better job, you need to accept that with humility and recognise their performance,” Wolff explained.
“Sebastian and Ferrari were well-deserved winners. From the early stages of the race, it was clear that Sebastian was very quick because Lewis wasn't able to pull away.
“Sebastian came into the window where the undercut was possible and we had the feeling at that point that the tyres were not lasting.
“It was the team's impression on the pit wall looking at the data and Lewis' in the car, too. So that was when, with all the clear risks of coming out in traffic, we took the decision to come in.
“We were between a rock and a hard place, really, and we went for it. But Ferrari played it very well – and they had the quicker car.
“After that, we seemed to pick up in performance on the soft tyres. Lewis managed everything perfectly and I must compliment Valtteri, too – he showed really good pace, made no mistakes through the whole weekend and got his first podium with the team in his first race.
“Now, the job for us is to learn the lessons from this race, understand why we didn't perform to our maximum and keep working hard to improve the car in every area.”
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