Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsFerrari

Ferrari 'ready to attack' - Vettel

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Sebastian Vettel says Ferrari is "ready to attack" Mercedes in today's Austrian Grand Prix.

Ferrari introduced an updated power unit in Canada but Vettel was unable to exploit its full potential after reliability issues in qualifying left him near the back of the grid. The SF15-T has looked quick throughout the weekend in Austria so far and with Vettel qualifying third behind Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg he is in a strong position to put pressure on the Mercedes pair.

"Well we’re always ready, we always fight and obviously wait for our chances," Vettel said. "So far it’s been quite difficult because they’ve been bloody quick but yeah, we’ll try. Hopefully we can be a bit closer. We know that qualifying doesn’t match the race, so, yeah, we’re ready to attack and try our best."

Meanwhile Hamilton is wary of Ferrari's threat as the season progresses, saying it is natural Mercedes will find it harder to keep its performance advantage at the same level.

"Naturally they've put a lot in to catching us," Hamilton said. "It's always easier to catch than it is to lead as a team. It's been described a bit like a mountain or a hill, we're at the top of it and it'll tail off a little bit in terms of development. It's harder to make those next steps, maybe it gets steeper I don't know.

"They've had bigger steps to gain, they've done a great job and hopefully we have a great race with them."

Click here for the gallery of the Formula Una girls at the Austrian Grand Prix

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.