A sigh of relief could almost be heard from four-time Formula One champion Sebastian Vettel after final practice ahead of Australian Grand Prix qualifying in Melbourne on Friday.

Frustrated moans were almost the norm as teams struggled to come to terms with the new six cylinder turbo-charged hybrid engines during Friday’s practice, with several over-steering at corners and finding the grass.

And Vettel looked set to join them after also at one stage veering off track on a sometimes jittery run around Albert Park.

It did not auger well after Red Bull’s disastrous testing sessions at Bahrain.

But Vettel believed his team were finally on track after he clocked the fourth fastest time in final practice on Friday.

“With every lap I grow more confident,” he said.

“I have done a lot of laps in my time not so much in this car but this is a lot of new stuff, it is step by step, we can’t rush things but today was a very good day.

“It was a relief today looking at our performance.”

Vettel had initially tipped Mercedes to win in Melbourne, given the stronger testing of their cars piloted by Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.

Now he wasn’t so sure.

“There is still a lot to learn and I am not yet in the rhythm that I need to be,” he said.

“But there is no need to rush.

“At testing the real difference was that we didn’t know where we were, we didn’t get that many laps in.

“It was a different story today, generally we are very happy.

“We have made a big improvement on the track.

“But in qualifying (on Saturday) we will have to be at the right place at the right time.”

Red Bull boss Christian Horner said the team finally knew where they stood in the F1 mix.

“That’s extremely encouraging for our team,” he said.

“Hopefully it bodes well for the weekend.

“The gameplan is to see the chequered flag on Sunday and I think we learned some valuable lessons today (to ensure that).

“In many respects this is where we would have ideally liked to have been at our first test.

“Now we have some ground to make up.”