Sebastian Vettel is confident Ferrari did not show anything close to its true performance in the opening practice sessions for the Australian Grand Prix.
Mercedes and Red Bull appeared to be closely matched in both the short and long runs during Friday's second practice session in Melbourne. Ferrari was a bit further back, with Kimi Raikkonen 0.2s off Lewis Hamilton's benchmark in FP2 -- Vettel finished 0.5s adrift.
Both red cars struggled to match the long-run pace shown by its closest rivals but Vettel is not worried by the gap.
"Boring work like every Friday!" Vettel said after the session. "No different.
"We actually tried to chase the balance a bit because I didn't feel very comfortable yet, so I think we still have quite a lot of performance in hand. I'm not too worried because I know that if I get everything right then we should be in better shape but it looks to be close which is good news. So we should be able to do something tomorrow."
The top three teams were split by just 0.283s in FP2 but Vettel says that was to be expected.
When asked if he was surprised by that gap, he said: "No, not really. Obviously it's difficult to say how much everybody will improve.
"I think certainly we have a little bit in hand, I wasn't happy with the [quickest] lap that I had and with the rhythm and the balance yet so there's more to come but I think that's probably the same for everyone else. But I do hope that I can make a bigger step than the others. If it's close then it's good, it means that you can do something, so hopefully it stays that close. We'll find out tomorrow."
Friday might well have been the last dry running the teams will do until Sunday, with rain forecast throughout Saturday, when the teams will have the first qualifying session of the 2018 season.
Rolex Australian Grand Prix Schedule on ESPN Networks (all times Eastern)
Thur., March 22
Practice 1 9 p.m. ESPN3
Friday, March 23
Practice 2 1 a.m. ESPN3
Practice 3 10 p.m. ESPNEWS
Sat., March 24
Qualifying 2 a.m. ESPN2
Sun., March 25
On the Grid 12:30 a.m. ESPN2
Race 1 a.m. ESPN2
Race (encore) 11 a.m. ESPN2
Race (encore) 1 p.m. ESPNEWS
Race (encore) 9 p.m. ESPNEWS