Vettel 'dreaming' of Ferrari victory at Monza

Sebastian Vettel says he is able to dream of a Ferrari victory after they qualifying second and third for the Italian Grand Prix.

Mercedes' advantage during Friday practice was reduced throughout each practice session, with Ferrari challenging Lewis Hamilton for pole position on Saturday. Ultimately, Hamilton took pole by 0.234s from Kimi Raikkonen, but Vettel - who will start from third - is targeting victory with both cars in a strong position.

"First of all I think it is a fantastic result – second and third and very close to Lewis is the big positive of the day which makes us confident for tomorrow," Vettel said. "Obviously its our home race so its something special every time you drive past and get all the support, with people standing up and waving their flags and jumping up and down in the grandstand.

"It definitely feels different to other races I’ve done before so I’m trying to take it all in and enjoy the day tomorrow as well. Hopefully we can both be on the podium tomorrow ... if we are both ahead of [Hamilton] that would obviously be a dream come true, I think dreaming is allowed but we have to be realistic, I think it will be a hard race tomorrow as these guys have some serious pace in the race as we have found out many times this year. Nevertheless, we will try to fight and do everything we can to put people behind us."

And Vettel attributes Ferrari's improved performance to the team learning from the last race rather than focusing solely on an update for Monza.

"I think, generally, we try to make steps forward at every race so naturally you [bring] some small bits and pieces to try and help the performance overall. We did for here but nothing special for the race here just because it’s our home race.

"I think we learned a lot in Spa, which is similar conditions to here in terms of downforce. We weren’t happy with the balance of the car but I think we found a better balance and the car kept coming to us this weekend and I think that is the biggest reason why the gap is [smaller] than usual. Plus you never know what other people are doing – maybe they were struggling or Lewis was not as happy as he usually was.

"In the end, it doesn’t matter, we had a very good session, qualified second and third because we were second and third quickest today and the rest we will see tomorrow."