'It's pretty clear that Mercedes is fastest' - Vettel

Sebastian Vettel says it is "pretty clear" that Mercedes remain the fastest team in Formula 1 despite Ferrari's victory in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix. Vettel sneaked a victory under the Virtual Safety Car in Melbourne, but has hopes of making it to from two for 2018 in Bahrain this week, having won in Sakhir last year.

Lewis Hamilton looked in fine fettle at Albert Park a fortnight ago, taking a dominant pole position by six tenths and then controlling the race until Romain Grosjean's retirement opened the door for Vettel.

Vettel jumped a pole-sitting Valtteri Bottas to win in Bahrain last year, but he suggested Mercedes are the team to beat in the night race this year.

"If you look at the pace - testing, first race - it's pretty clear that Mercedes is fastest, probably with a three, fourth tenths' gap," Vettel said.

"That's also what we saw in the race. Obviously, Lewis was controlling his pace in the beginning and then pushed when he had to.

"He had, obviously, time in hand. I think that's the fair answer. And then I think it's very close behind them."

The Silver Arrows' advantage remains most pronounced in qualifying, where the 'party mode' available gives them an extra boost when needed most, but Vettel believes the massive advantage Hamilton enjoyed in Australia is not reflective of their genuine pace.

"Overall, I think in qualifying [in Melbourne] the gap there looked a bit bigger then it probably should have been," Vettel added.

"I think if you look at the session again, it's pretty clear that Q2 in particular Mercedes and Lewis didn't get the lap together, and then in Q3 he did.

"And I think Max [Verstappen] had a small mistake in Q3 and I had a small mistake so we should have been a bit closer.

"Yeah, I think that's the gap we saw in quali and in the race, so both."

Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen was also quizzed about the Scuderia's gap to Mercedes, but the 'Iceman' was typically less willing to discuss details.

"You can keep guessing [the gap] as long as you want, we will see over the weekend where we are," he said in Thursday's press conference.

"I have zero interest to start guessing where we are, or what the difference is in qualifying. There are so many things that will change that, and we will do our best and see where we end up in qualifying and the race."