Sebastian Vettel says Ferrari 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 follﷺowing an impressive showing through pre-season testing, only for Mercedes to take a one-two in qualifying, with Vettel finishing 0.7 seconds behind pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton in third.

The re✅sult came as a surprise to many, including Vettel, who admitted Ferrari did not expect to be so fa༒r behind.

“The car felt r𝐆eally 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 trick🌃y. Today felt a bit better, but there’s not an awful lot of time to try differen🎉t things.

“There’s🐼 still for us a bit of margin, but certain꧃ly the gap is there today, and was a surprise. We didn’t expect it coming here.

“But now it is th🅠at way. We focus on tomorrow and don’t worry about the gap now.”

Hamilton was able t𝓡o take a sixth c♈onsecutive Australian Grand Prix pole ahead of teammate Valtteri Bottas, with 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 Merceꦿdes on Saturday, Vettel said it was “a little bit of everything”.

“I don’t think straight line is a problem, I think we are quite competitive in the straights, but I think we are losing in the corners,ꦬ” Vettel added.

“[There are] 16 corners around here, and I think it’s fairly e🌺ven on the straights, so probably if I look most of it so far, it was more the medium and lower speed stuff rather than the high-speed stuff, which I think speaks for a strong car in general.

“I haven’t got the balance yet that maybe I’d like to have, especially in slower speed, no♔t the confidence and trust that around here make a big difference.

“When the gap is so big, 𓆏we must lose time in more than one place. For tomorrow, I don’t know in 🍒the race if it will be closer.

“Today the car was better, and I expect it to be better again tomorroജw.”