Sebastian Vettel admitted Ferrari wasn't fast enough to challenge Mercedes for pole, having led a second-row lockout in Abu Dhabi qualifying.
The Scuderia made good progress based on their pace on Friday but the technical final sector proved too big of a weakness as Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas made enough time to secure a 1-2.
Vettel, however, wasn't too displeased with the result given the circumstances.
“I enjoyed the session. I improved but not enough to be a threat,” Vettel admitted. “No surprise [to see Mercedes ahead]. They looked very competitive all weekend."
The four-time world champion also conceded Ferrari probably didn't extract the maximum from their car despite having the advantage on the straights in the first and second sector.
“Qualifying was a bit up and down, we tried everything and gave it everything we have," he said. “It’s a long lap so there’s a lot of lap time to be found if everything works out.
“I was happy in our session and happy [overall].”
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Looking ahead to Sunday, the race is expected to be a close fight between the top three teams with Red Bull, as they did in Brazil, showing better long-run speed.
There's also plenty of pride up for grabs to claim one final win in 2018.
“I would have liked to get in the front row but it’s not the case,” Vettel continued. “I said to the guys tomorrow we will fight as hard as we can, anything can happen.”
