Bahrain GP: Sebastian Vettel 'down' over gap to Mercedes in F1 qualifying

Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton fought each other for pole position on Saturday with the Finn coming out on top, while Vettel ended up four tenths of a second adrift.

"In Q2 I thought OK, it will be tight', happy to go into Q3 - and then I was very happy with my first lap," said Vettel, who topped both practice sessions on Friday.

"And when I got the time, I was a bit down. Four tenths was a lot more than expected given how good I felt.

"On the last run, I tried probably too hard everywhere, we had nothing to lose.

"I tried a bit harder but didn't work, was slightly slower. Being a tenth quicker [wouldn't be] good enough but I tried."

Vettel, who did comfortably outqualify team-mate Kimi Raikkonen, said he wasn't sure why Ferrari's deficit to Mercedes had grown compared to the first two races in Australia and China.

"I haven't seen where we lost most of the time, but a little spread everywhere," he said.

"Sector 1 and 3 stood out, Sector 2 not too bad.

"I don't know if they have an update for here, and they can push harder.

"We lost a bit more time there, a bit more than usual.

"For tomorrow, the most important thing is the car felt good today."