Vettel not surprised Ferrari were lapped by Mercedes
Ferrari were "68 hp" up on Mercedes at times in 2019.
It may well have been surprising for some to see both Ferraris get lapped by Mercedes at the Hungarian GP, but not for Sebastian Vettel.
Mercedes‘ W11 may be their most dominant car yet, and they used it to full effect as Lewis Hamilton stormed to victory, equalling Michael Schumacher’s record for most wins at a circuit with his eighth victory at the Hungaroring, whilst also maintaining Mercedes’ 100% winning record so far in 2020.
Vettel meanwhile finished his second race of the season after crossing the line in P6, whilst team-mate Charles Leclerc finished outside the points in P11.
Both Ferraris were lapped by Mercedes, a surprise sight despite the Scuderia’s struggles so far in 2020, but it didn’t shock Vettel.
“No, are you surprised? I’m not,” he said when asked the question by Sky F1.
“It was already pretty clear that they would lap us before the race so it was not a surprise.”
#HungarianGP results 🏁 #Seb5 P6@Charles_Leclerc P11#essereFerrari 🔴 pic.twitter.com/eDDtOC3J0w
— Scuderia Ferrari (@ScuderiaFerrari) July 19, 2020
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The four-time World Champion did say though that Ferrari’s finishing positions in Hungary were more representative of their true place in the pecking order than Austria was.
“It was back to normal, obviously Austria one was the outlier so Austria two it didn’t happen, now we are here,” he explained.
“I think probably today this was where we should finish, fifth or sixth, but probably not further up.”
Leclerc was understandably disappointed to finish outside the points, but he felt his SF1000 was carrying an issue.
“To be honest I think there was something wrong in the race, it just doesn’t match with the car I had in qualifying,” he revealed.
“Also the day before on Friday and we haven’t changed much, so we will be looking at the data to see what is wrong.
“The car was extremely hard to drive on my side today.”
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