Ferrari, a qualification that gives hope and chases away the ghosts of the past...

It's a red bolt of lightning that pierces the gray sky of Albert Park, and the Ferrari makes the men in gray feel like they're breathing down their necks, aiming decisively for the first corner, alongside - almost on equal terms - that Anglo-German queen who until yesterday it seemed like it was from another planet.

Two hundred and sixty-eight thousandths, twenty-seven hundredths, just over two and a half tenths separate Sebastian Vettel's Ferrari from poleman Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes in qualifying for the Australian GP. There is no winter test that holds, foot on the raised straight, doubts about hypothetical three card games and various hide and seek. Let's talk about qualifications, the key moment in which the protagonists are forced to shed their masks and show us what they are and what they can do.

And well Ferrari, shortly after the Italian dawn, gave the much-needed boost, the break that was needed compared to a recent past full of disappointments and uncertainties. The SF70H is a gem of grip, it stays on the tracks, it can be driven. Sebastian gets excited and throws it in with force, the car is so stable that it forgives the slight impetuosity of the little German, who keeps behind Bottas' Mercedes and admits: "A huge step forward, and the lap wasn't even perfect...".

A year ago the Red team qualified eight tenths behind the silver arrows, this year - new rules, dinghy, space machines glued to the ground - we have fallen to less than three tenths. And the Cavallino has grabbed with its claws a front row that was even missing from the pole position in Singapore way back in September 2015. A year and seven months later Ferrari seems to have resurrected, and never mind if Mercedes remains the strongest team, if Lewis Hamilton is set to experience a world championship as a great favourite, also thanks to the uncertainty of Bottas struggling with a complicated debut in the top team par excellence.

Sebastian Vettel has brushed aside winter fears by proving that Ferrari has designed a fast car. The Red is the second largest force in the field (where has Newey's much-feared Red Bull gone?), but above all it gives the idea of ​​being able to give its all to Mercedes, racing on equal terms, without necessarily having to settle for being a discreet presence on the podium, in the role of bridesmaid in the Brackley doubles.

Vettel made it clear meter after meter, Ferrari wants to annoy the Germans, they have the possibility to make their studs felt from the first race and they won't have to do it twice. The past is a difficult car to set up mixed up in the chaos between the third and fourth rows. The present is clean air and only the first bend ahead. A start to the season that is still nothing, but has finally given a little certainty; Ferrari is competitive. This time it is not a supposition, but an observation.

Antonino Rendina

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