Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsRed Bull Racing

Vettel: Red Bull 'a lot closer' to Mercedes

Sebastian Vettel says he is not concerned by Red Bull's recent improvements but admits his old team is "a lot closer" to Mercedes.

Daniel Ricciardo qualified just 0.035s slower than Vettel at the Hungaroring, with the former team-mates set to line up third and fourth on the Hungarian Grand Prix grid. Vettel says the improvement has been clear since the previous race in Britain but he isn't concerned to have a threat from behind as Ferrari focuses on catching Mercedes.

"Well, I think [Red Bull] have made a step closer to – ultimately – Mercedes, if you consider them being at the front," Vettel said. "So if you look at the gap they had, I think some races ago, and the gap they have now, they are a lot closer.

"I think it was fairly evident at Silverstone already so it was expected that they have a strong weekend here as well. So I expect them to be strong, but we managed to outqualify them which means that we are quicker.

"Obviously [Friday] we cannot really compare because for us it was not a good day. Hopefully we can get a good comparison in the race and come out on top."

Ricciardo won last year's Hungarian Grand Prix from fourth on the grid for Red Bull.

AS IT HAPPENED: Hungarian Grand Prix qualifying

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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.