Both Ferrari drivers feel mistakes cost them Massa's third place
Monday 16 March 2015 14:08, UK
Sebastian Vettel believes Ferrari can be “very happy” with the progress they have made over the winter after challenging Williams in qualifying in Australia.
The Scuderia’s new signing claimed the team’s best qualifying result since last August with fourth place on the grid for the season-opener as the promising pace the SF15-T showed in testing materialised in Melbourne.
Although the gap to Mercedes remains another matter – polesitter Lewis Hamilton's advantage over Felipe Massa's third-placed Williams was 1.4 seconds – Vettel finished within half a tenth of the Brazilian. That gap compares to the one-second advantage that the Grove team enjoyed over Ferrari in qualifying at the final race of 2014 in Abu Dhabi.
“If you look at the gap to P1, there is still a lot of work to do but for now we are very happy,” Vettel said after outqualifying new team-mate Kimi Raikkonen at the first attempt.
“Obviously it is a big improvement from last year, the atmosphere in the team is very good, it is going in the right direction. Obviously I would like to be one position higher but Felipe did a very good lap, so fair [play] to him. We will see what we can do tomorrow but for sure it looks so far we are having a really good weekend.”
The former Red Bull driver was pleased that predictions that Ferrari would be in the mix in the group behind Mercedes proved correct and is now hoping to mark his debut in red with a podium finish.
“Coming out of winter testing, as far as you read the times, everyone more or less predicted Mercedes to be in front, which proved right, then it would be very close between ourselves, Williams and Red Bull.
“Speaking of ourselves, we are very happy where we are right now, we confirmed that is very close with Williams if you look at the gaps, so we will see what we can do in the race. What is most important is we keep having a good weekend without any problems and have a smooth race tomorrow and ideally get that one position [third] back.”
Massa dislodged Vettel from the head of the second row in the dying stages of Q3 and the four-time champion admitted: “I was not entirely happy and Felipe nailed the lap, so I think it was in reach. The first shot I had on the new set [so] ideally [it] should have been quicker. But it wasn’t, so that is down to me.
“With the second shot I think in terms of the strategy we could have done some things differently, but all-in-all it is good to have both cars inside the top five.”
Raikkonen qualified fifth ahead of the other Williams of Valtteri Bottas but also felt Massa’s position should have been his after a series of mistakes on his final lap.
“I had a big mistake, I lost three tenths in corner three and then just messed up the next two corners. The rest of the lap was pretty good, so we should have been in P3 but that is how it is," the Finn said.
“We should have been P3 and not been one second behind Mercedes, but we knew that we can’t fight with them in qualifying. Yesterday we had a pretty good long run so tomorrow, whatever the weather is, I think we have improved a lot overall.
"It is a bit disappointing to make a mistake and start in P5 but I think we can still do a good race, have a clean start and do the best we can. I think we should have a good chance to fight for that position.”
Having rebuked his own driving on Friday, the Finn was again annoyed to be making mistakes. However, after a woeful run of results in 2014, Raikkonen was taking solace from the Scuderia’s much-improved form.
“I don’t think I have been driving very well on the one lap this weekend. Qualifying was good and then I made a mistake, so it is a bit disappointing, but that is how it goes," he admitted.
“At least we have a pretty good package and overall we are happy as a team, we are working well together, so we know we have the speed but we have to improve in all areas. As for me, do a better job on driving, but it is not a very typical circuit. I was better in qualifying than in the morning or yesterday but it is not ideal.”
