'We were missing something'

Fernando Alonso was at a loss to explain Ferrari's lack of performance in qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix compared to its rivals Red Bull and McLaren.

Alonso will line up fifth on the grid at Albert Park on Sunday after clocking a time well over a second off Sebastian Vettel on pole. After Ferrari's promising form in testing the result came as something of a surprise and Alonso struggled to pinpoint the reason why his car struggled.

"I think yesterday we had more overall grip and a better balance, but today Felipe and I felt less grip straight away," he told BBC Sport. "The track conditions were a little bit worse but the other people were better than yesterday - we were missing something today, which we need to understand a little bit better. Also we knew the distance to Sauber, Toro Rosso and Renault in winter testing, and yesterday we were one second in front of them, but now it's just two or three tenths, so it's something lacking in our car."

He said he could have pushed harder to try to wrest fourth position from Jenson Button, but did not consider the risk worthwhile.

"We knew that if we risked maybe we could get fourth, but if we took it very safe in qualifying we were fifth or sixth," he added. "Now is not the time to take any risks, at the first race of the championship. But unfortunately we found ourselves with only one set [of soft tyres] in Q3 and we tried to do our best. I think fifth position is more or less what we expected before qualifying. The position we are happy with but the gap [in lap time] to pole we are not so happy. That is what we have to look at and analyse tonight."

He expects Ferrari to be back on song in the race and for the next qualifying session in Malaysia where track temperatures will almost certainly be higher.

"We will try to do a good race tomorrow and in Sepang we need to be closer to the pole for sure," he said. "I expect this was not the normal pace from us and we will get better and better tomorrow."

© ESPN EMEA Ltd.

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