Were Ferrari quicker than Mercedes in Australia?

Following the Australian Grand Prix the paddock and thoughts of the fans were pretty mixed, did Mercedes hand Ferrari the win or did they earn it?

The race victory was a head-to-head battle between two drivers who have won the Formula One World Championship seven times between them.

Three-time F1 title holder Lewis Hamilton was on pole position in Australia in his Mercedes, whilst four-time F1 champ Sebastian Vettel shared the front row in his Ferrari.

In winter testing Ferrari had threatened to match the pace of Mercedes, but overall there had still been nothing to suggest Ferrari could beat Mercedes.

Until, Hamilton set his fastest time in Q2 on older tyres, meaning his first set of tyres for the race had completed more laps and more heat cycles than his opponents.

That left the Brit pitting early, ultimately handing Vettel the race victory.

A mistake from Mercedes and Hamilton? Or were Ferrari and Vettel quicker?

‘The Ferrari was simply the quicker car. The way Sebastian held on to Lewis [at the start] was simply surprising. We were pushing flat out but were not able to pull away. There was the risk of the undercut and we all thought that the tyres wouldn’t last any longer – and all that made us take the decision to pit to avoid the undercut. Then coming out behind Max (Verstappen), who was fighting his own race, lost us the race. Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff told formula1.com.

‘In hindsight you are always smarter no? But as a general summary we weren’t quick enough ? that’s why Sebastian is the deserved winner. For sure we could have done better. Would we have been good enough to win? I don’t know. Sebastian could have attempted the undercut at any stage and it could have come up the same way. But why we didn’t have the pace at the beginning of the race, in these conditions ? I don’t know.