With Ferrari having been so clearly trounced in Melbourne, both in qualifying and the race, eyebrows were raised - not least in the Mercedes garage - when the opening sessions in Bahrain saw the pendulum swing the other way, with the Maranello outfit leaving its German (and Austrian) rivals for dead.

However, speaking after the sessions, team boss Mattia Binotto admitted that the opening sessions should not be taken at face value.

"Today, we focused on ourselves, on our programmes, on the dedications we made after Australia," he told reporters, trying to react and address the issues we had.

"I think the delta you see here is not too significant," he added. "I think tomorrow it will be certainly a tough battle. The others will be very strong.

"It's obvious, you may see the GPS data, the speed on the straights," he continued, "we were certainly pushing different engine modes compared to what the others were pushing.

"We're expecting a tough battle tomorrow, but I think more important is staying focused on ourselves, we improved our situation after Australia. This one is quite a different track. Let's say we didn't have today the problem we suffered in the Australia, thanks to the track and thanks to the modification we made."

Asked if, as is widely speculated, cooling was a significant factor in Melbourne, he replied: "I will not go into details on what happened, that's our matter.

"I saw a lot of speculation in the newspapers and internet," he added. "What I read is not fully true. We did not have issues of cooling, I may tell you that.

"At the end of Australia, it has been a sum of many factors, from the power unit to the set-up to tyre management. And I think it's only the sum of what we have seen in Australia."

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