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Kimi Raikkonen lambasted his own driving as Ferrari finished best-of-the-rest behind Mercedes in a Australian Grand Prix practice that Sebastian Vettel called the "smoothest" Formula 1 Friday he could remember.

Vettel and Raikkonen were third and fourth fastest at Albert Park, with Vettel 0.7 seconds slower than the quickest Mercedes of Nico Rosberg in the second session of the day.

Raikkonen finished up more than four tenths slower than his team-mate in practice two, but still lapped fast enough to stay ahead of the Williams of Valtteri Bottas.

The Finn said he was happy with the car but not with his own performance.

"Not an ideal day, [I was] not driving very well, not putting the lap together," Raikkonen admitted.

"We chased the car a little bit on the longer runs and it seems to work a bit better, just tough to put things together.

"We know where we expect ourselves to be and it's only Friday. We still have work to do. I just have to put things together and drive a good lap and we should be OK."

Ex-Red Bull driver Vettel said the Mercedes drivers were "out of reach" but reckoned the lack of problems encountered by his new team meant Ferrari could feel positive it is in good shape as qualifying approaches.

"I'm sure Mercedes is out of reach, you have to be realistic, but the most important today is that we ran and didn't have any problems," Vettel said.

"It was very smooth and I don't remember the last smooth Friday I had like this, so from that point of view it was very good."