Ferrari struggling in low-speed corners in Baku - Sebastian Vettel

The German qualified 1.208 seconds adrift of polesitter Nico Rosberg with team-mate Kimi Raikkonen three tenths further back.

"We have a strong engine, we've made very good progress on that front," said Vettel when asked if engine power was a factor in the gap given Baku's long straight.

"I know that's not the place where we lose the most time.

"There are a lot of corners here where we struggle to extract the same out of the low-speed corners as other people do.

"That's something we need to understand because we know our car is quick but here and there around this track we seem to struggle a bit."

Vettel said Ferrari had made a "good step" forward from Friday, when Raikkonen indicated the Scuderia was struggling to get the tyres to work over one lap.

"We were quite a long way off so we improved the car, and maybe also the conditions came a little bit towards us," said Vettel.

"Obviously it's still not great if you look at the gap to Mercedes in front.

"That's something we need to try and understand because we know that the car is quick and the pace is there.

"We saw that last week but obviously this is a different circuit, different conditions.

"It's not ideal but nevertheless we put both cars in a very good position to have a good race and anything can happen so I'm excited to race."

Raikkonen was pleased with the progress Ferrari made overnight to get the car more to his liking.

"There was more to come," said the Finn.

"Hopefully for Sunday the car should be better and that's a good thing.

"We made it a lot faster and feeling more like it should - I felt like I could drive it the way I want.

"That's why I feel that there was more to come."