Sebastian Vettel conceded Ferrari has yet to unlock the pace it felt it had during testing, while expressing surprise at the advantage Mercedes held during Formula 1 qualifying in Australia.
Vettel set the fastest time of pre-season testing but Ferrari’s pace failed to materialise throughout the weekend, as Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes led every session.
Vettel was never in contention for pole position and wound up third, with his best Q3 lap seven-tenths behind Hamilton.
"The car felt really good at testing, and probably around here, so far this weekend, it didn’t feel as good yet," he 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. Obviously you have to get on with it, and the sessions come fast.
"Especially in qualifying you can’t really change much. If anything you get a better understanding of where you’re losing out or where it feels uncomfortable.
"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, and as I said, we focus on tomorrow and don’t worry about the gap now."
New team-mate Charles Leclerc qualified fifth for his Ferrari debut and conceded he failed to extract the maximum from the SF90.
"I’m not happy with myself, I didn’t do the job in Q3 which I think is a shame," he said.
"In Q1 and Q2 it was positive on my side. The first run in Q3 was pretty OK but the second run I just did a mistake and locked up into Turn 1 and it was a scrappy run from my side.
"It’s a shame as the top three was definitely there, top two not, but we will work to get better."
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