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Sebastian Vettel: Ferrari still lacking qualifying pace compared to Merc

Sebastian Vettel says Ferrari is still lacking in its qualifying pace compared to rivals Mercedes, having been beaten to pole position for the Chinese Grand Prix by Lewis Hamilton.

Vettel missed out on pole in China by less than 0.3 of a second, but once again managed to split the Mercedes pair in qualifying, posting a time 0.001s faster than Valtteri Bottas, which equates to just 5.9 centimetres of the Shanghai International Circuit.

Qualifying has been a weakness of Ferrari's in recent seasons, with the Scuderia recording just five front row starts including one pole position before this season since the V6 hybrid era began in 2014.