Sebastian Vettel's delight at finishing third on his Ferrari debut led to him mocking Nico Rosberg following the Australian Grand Prix.

In the post race press conference, Rosberg was asked about the gap to the rest of the field and said he would like to be able to battle with Ferrari despite having finished half a minute clear. Vettel then interrupted his fellow German to poke fun at his answer, asking if her really meant what he was saying.

Below is the full transcript of how the situation unfolded...

NR: I hope we can have a good fight. That would be awesome. I think the next couple of races we’re going to be leading the way for sure, and we’re going to try and keep it that way, but we know it would be good if they can come a bit closer, as long as they don’t come too close…

SV: Be honest. Do you really hope so? Seriously? You finished 30 seconds ahead of us and you hope it’s going to be closer? So you hope you slow down? Is that what you’re saying?

NR: I hope that you can give us a challenge! Because it’s important for the sport and for the fans. And I do think about the show. Half of me – or a part of me – thinks about the show because I want to give people a great time at home watching on TV or at the track. If you do come a bit closer, that would be awesome for everybody.

SV: First suggestion, if you don’t mind, I think your garage becomes public for Malaysia and everyone can have a look. No? I’m joking.

NR: You can come if you want, we can invite you…

SV: OK, thank you for the invite, I’ll come.

NR: Friday Malaysia, OK.

SV: Engineers’ room? Debrief, I’ll be there.

Rosberg later hit back at Vettel in similar fashion after the four-time world champion said he was disappointed his Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen failed to finish the race.

SV: Kimi didn’t finish, which is a shame. We could have scored a lot more points today.

NR: ... that you find it a shame that your teammate didn’t finish?

SV: Yes. I don’t know how much you like each other but Kimi and myself we get along, so I think it is a shame.

NR: I though as a racing driver you might like it that you have a couple of points advantage over him now. I don’t want to get you off the foot there, sorry. Oops. Look at him, look at him go...

SV: I can see your point. No, no. I can see that at the moment, where we are, we want to make sure we catch you guys and to do that we both need to score. Yes, I honestly think so and I honestly didn’t want to see the second car not finishing today.

NR: Because I’m ready for it now, you caught me a bit off guard before but now I’m ready for it!

Click here for the full gallery from the Australian Grand Prix

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.

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