Front-row start gives Sebastian Vettel chance to challenge Mercedes
Sebastian Vettel is set to make life difficult for Mercedes in the Australian GP after qualifying on the front row, between Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas.
Given that Ferrari traditionally makes good starts there’s a chance that Vettel could get ahead of Hamilton at the start, it could be a fascinating contest. Vettel scored most of his Red Bull wins from the front, where he could control the pace.
“We have a good car, we are working well as a team, things are improving,” said Vettel. “So obviously it’s nice to see things are working, the car is working. We had a mixed day yesterday but the confidence in the car was there from testing, and we showed it again today. In the end I was not entirely happy with my lap.
“I was pretty happy with the end, maybe not the opening of the lap, where we lost a bit too much, but I think Lewis did a very good lap. I would have loved to but I don’t think pole was out for grasp. But tomorrow I think we can do something in the race, as I said, the car feels good, we’ve improved it, so the pace should be much better than it was yesterday, when we had some practice.”
Vettel was pleased with the progress made by the team: “It’s been a big winter for us. A lot of change we have been through as a team the last 12 months, to the better I think. The team is getting stronger. Of course everybody has been pushing very hard. It’s not so easy coming here with the long journey to get to Australia but I think people are fired up and people are motivated for tomorrow as you said at the start, I think it’s the first good opportunity.”
The German is also confident that he can make a good start.
“I think last year’s start was very good. Let’s hope we can have a similar start compared to the rest around… from P2 this year. I don’t think there’s any guarantee to have a good start so we have to work for it. I think we’ve prepared well so hopefully we can have a good launch, both of us. I think Kimi’s sitting in fourth, so it would be great to challenge Mercedes already into the first corner but then, as I said, the race is quite a bit longer than that. It’s the first race of the season: new tires; new cars; nearly new everything so it will be a long race so hopefully we can kick off well.”
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