Vettel hopes to turn things around at the start

The Ferrari driver, who took a dominant victory from pole in Singapore last weekend, finished down in fourth position in today's qualifying, as the normal order was restored at the front of the grid.

Mercedes duo Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton locked out the front row of the grid after a difficult weekend in Singapore, with Vettel finishing over six tenths of a second behind.

Vettel said there was more laptime to be found, but admitted the Mercedes were out of reach.

"The first two runs, I didn't hook it up, so struggled a bit," said Vettel. "At the end car came alive and I was a lot happier. There was more in the car, but I was happy with the lap.

"There was a chance to go even quicker with the track improving, but it was not an easy session. I would've loved to do more laps, but we wanted to save tyres.

"We can be reasonably happy with fourth, you're only arguing over one grid slot [behind the Mercedes].

"Hopefully we have a start like in Singapore and turn it around straight away."

Teammate Kimi Raikkonen qualified down in sixth, although the Finn said he had the speed to be third on the grid.

"For sure we went faster in Q2 [than Q3], but I had one slightly average tyre set for the first run in Q3 and then we didn't have the second run.

"A bit disappointing. I felt that we had the speed for third place but this is how it goes sometimes."