Sebastian Vettel had been hoping that Ferrari's straight line speed advantage would allow them to follow-up Bahrain's qualifying domination with another 1-2 on the grid on Shanghai.
But it was not to be, and both Vettel and his team mate Charles Leclerc were a disappointing three tenths of a second slower than the two Mercedes drivers on Saturday. It means that they will have a lot of work to do reversing the situation in the race.
“They are bloody quick in the corners," Vettel told Sky Sport F1's Martin Brundle after the end of the session. "Right from Q1 they just seemed to start off from a better place.
"When we get close we have an advantage on the straight line so maybe we can do something there. The race is long, we'll take it from there - it should be a good day tomorrow."
But despite not being able to compete for the front row, Vettel still felt that Ferrari was in good shape.
“I think we had a good session, maybe there was a little bit more," he offered. "There was maybe a little bit more but not enough to beat these guys today.
"We have a strong platform to work from.
"We started off well from Barcelona, the feeling was strong" he pointed out. "Since then, [we’ve] struggled to repeat that. The past two races, we had little issues here and there.
“Bahrain didn’t go my way. Saturday, had a small problem. Sunday, struggled in the first stint. Here and there, I’m not happy.
“You try and drive around the problems and try to set up the car properly," he explained. “Maybe some things related to tracks, which Barcelona doesn’t show, but the car is strong so it’s up to us to extract the performance.”
Vettel was caught up in traffic just before starting his final flying lap, and was blamed by Red Bull for preventing Max Verstappen from getting to the line in time for his own last run.
“I was actually quite happy I managed the final attempt because it was quite marginal on time," Vettel acknowledged. "Obviously everybody timed it around the same, so we all left for the same spot.
"When the team told me we only had ten seconds margin, I hurried up and made sure I crossed the line in time.
"If everyone would have sped up the way I did, then we should have all made it," he added. "But I obviously prioritised at that point to make the lap. It felt like others were not so aware."
Leclerc was among those who were able to make a final run, but he wasn't happy with how it turned out.
"[I'm] annoyed with myself," Leclerc told Sky Sports F1. "I did a mistake in the last lap and I shouldn't have done that.
"It's also disappointing because I think there was potential to do more today," he explained. However he admitted that overall, qualifying had gone better than he would have expected given his issues in practice.
"Overall I think there are some very positives on my side because FP1, FP2, FP3 I was quite lost - struggling a little bit, actually quite a lot," he said.
"Then we did a final change for qualie, and it was better. Overall I drove better and the lap time came," he added. "So it's good."
Asked if he felt that Ferrari would prove better in race trim, the 21-year-old replied: "I hope so! We'll see tomorrow," he shrugged. "I'll push throughout for the best result."
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