Sebastian Vettel thought he could challenge Mercedes in qualifying for the Austrian Grand Prix but says he is in a good position to take the fight to the world champions on Sunday from third position.
Ferrari's pace this weekend - especially on the long runs - has raised hopes it can challenge Mercedes this weekend. Vettel qualified four tenths down on Lewis Hamilton as Mercedes locked out the front row and takes comfort from the race pace Ferrari has displayed this weekend.
"We are always ready, we always fight and wait for our chances," Vettel said. "So far it's been quite difficult because they've been bloody quick. Hopefully we can be closer because we know qualifying doesn't match the race so we are ready to attack and try our best."
Vettel thought he could challenge the Mercedes drivers in Q3 and thinks the improvement displayed by its customer teams displays the fact it has extra in reserve for qualifying.
"Once again I thought we could have had a bit of a word but unfortunately they were a bit too quick. We tried everything. I think it looked good generally throughout practice and preparing in qualifying. Q1 was a bit tricky for all of us but we set into the groove quite nicely. In the last part of qualifying Mercedes powered cars seem to be able to turn up the performance quite a bit. If you look at those two guys, but also the Williams, they are a lot closer than they were in practice."