F1 News, Reports and Race Results

Hamilton: 'Ferrari faster but Mercedes package delivered better'

Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton acknowledges Ferrari's current edge in terms of performance, but the Brit believes his Silver Arrows outfit has done a better overall job managing the opportunities that have come its way.

On the back of two successive wins, Hamilton has regained the lead in the world championship from arch-rival Sebastian Vettel despite a slight performance gap separating his Mercedes W09 from the Scuderia's SF71-H.

Circumstances played in favour of Mercedes at Hockenheim , where Vettel crashed out while comfortably in the lead, but in Hungary, the German team prevailed at a venue where its opponent was seen as the clear favourite to take top honors.

"As I said before I think Ferrari have had a slightly better package but we've delivered ours better and hopefully that will make the difference,'' Hamilton said.

"Hopefully in this second part of the season, we will be able to upgrade our package so it's a little bit stronger than theirs and if we keep bringing that 'A game' then hopefully they'll have no return to our ace serve.''

The summer break offers competitors an opportunity to assess their strengths and weaknesses, and Mercedes and Hamilton will be doing just that between now and when the action resumes at Spa at the end of August.

"Each year you do something different in your break,'' said the four-time world champion.

"You use and conserve your energy in a different way. I think I've got a good setup generally though this break.

"The race physically I am good but there's always areas you can improve, there's always things you can improve on.

"I am not going to say what they are but I am going to be working on some of those things through this break.

"There's still going to be some studying. I just got to keep working hard. We've got to keep improving."

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Michael Delaney

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