MELBOURNE, March 15 - A huge 34 second gap might have separated third-placed Sebastian Vettel from Australian GP race-winner Lewis Hamilton on Sunday (March 15 but the podium spot felt like a victory on his Ferrari debut.
Vettel endured a horror final season with Red Bull in 2014, outshone by then team mate Daniel Ricciardo and plagued by reliability problems throughout a winless campaign.
Jumping ship to a shaken-up Ferrari was a leap of faith for Vettel after the Maranello team laboured to fourth in the championship, their first winless season in over 20 years.