Despite many predicting that Ferrari would be at the front in Australia, the Scuderia struggled in Saturday's qualifying.Alonso could only manage fifth place while his team-mate Felipe Massa fared even worse, qualifying down in eighth place.
"We were not super-competitive today (compared to) practice," Alonso conceded.
"We knew if we took a big risk we may be fourth, if we are safe, we go fifth or sixth, so no need to take risks in the first qualifying of the season."
The Spaniard, though, insists he's "happy" with his grid slot, although the massive 1.44s gap to pole-sitter Vettel is a worry for the Italian marque.
"Position we are happy, distance from pole we are not happy, so we need to look at that overnight. Overall grip was where we lacked.
"We were not so bad yesterday, so we missed something today. I suspect this was not normal pace from us and we will get better and better tomorrow."
Source: Planet-F1
