Ferrari search for positives after Hamilton dominates Vettel, Raikkonen

Both Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen were satisfied to qualify in the top three of the Australian Grand Prix, although the Ferrari's gap to the record-breaking Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton leaves them with "an awful lot of work to do".

Vettel had set a new lap record to top the timesheets in Q2, but Hamilton knocked another eight tenths off that with his final flying run, stopping the clock at one minute 21.164 seconds.

Hamilton also set a new benchmark for pole positions in Australia, his seventh Saturday success in Melbourne taking him beyond Ayrton Senna.

However, the superior strategy of Ferrari helped Vettel beat Hamilton from second last season and the German was not too downcast, despite only managing a headline lap that was six tenths slower than Hamilton and good enough for third place behind his team-mate.

"I think we can be happy," Vettel said. "Yesterday I wasn't happy, I didn't really feel the car. It just kept coming better in qualifying.

Well done guys! #Kimi P2 and #Seb5 P3 is the final #Quali result #AusGP #ForzaFerrari pic.twitter.com/SMJhqAx7zU — Scuderia Ferrari (@ScuderiaFerrari) March 24, 2018

"On the last lap I had a bit of a moment into 13, I tried to brake really late and it didn't work. It was really close and it's exciting for us when it's that close.

"Shame that Lewis had quite a big gap at the end but I guess his lap was pretty good. Looking forward to tomorrow, I think we improved the car and we'll see what happens tomorrow.

"It's very close, we saw yesterday on the long runs that pace is very close. It's not the easiest place to overtake but who knows. We have an opportunity at the start and the race, who knows. I'm really happy for the team, it's a good result. Let's get going."

Raikkonen conceded that the team would be busy before lights out on Sunday trying to find the extra time to Hamilton.

"It was a pretty decent job. Obviously the lap time difference is quite big," the Finn said.

"It wasn't a straight forward session with the rain this morning. We have to be pretty happy with where we are starting but there is an awful lot of work to be done to improve things."