Sebastian Vettel claimed sixth place and much-needed points for Ferrari in today's Hungarian Grand Prix, but realistically there was little for the team to be celebrating.
Vettel finished a lap down from the race winner Lewis Hamilton, after the Mercedes overtook him in the final laps. Meanwhile Vettel's team mate Charles Leclerc failed to even get into the points, and crossed the lin in 11th.
Interviewed by Sky Sports F1 after the race, Vettel admitted that the disappointing outcome had not been much of a surprise to him.
“No. Are you surprised? I’m not,” he replied. “It was already clear that they would lap us before the race so it was not a surprise."
But at least it was an improvement on tenth place where Vettel finished the first race of the season earlier this month.
And it was a definite upgrade on the double retirement that Ferrari suffered last week when Vettel and Leclerc collided on the first lap.
“It was back to normal," Vettel acknowledged. "Obviously Austria 1 was the outlier so Austria 2 didn’t happen, now we are here.
“I think probably today this was where we could finish, arguably fifth or sixth, but probably not further up.”
As for Leclerc, the Monegasque felt that there had been an issue with his car throughout the race which had prevented him from making any progress during the afternoon despite starting on the third row of the grid after a solid time in qualifying.
"It was disappointing," he sighed. "But in the end we just need to work [on it[ now.
"There was something wrong in the race, it just doesn’t match with the car I had in qualifying," he complained. "But also the day before on Friday
“The car was extremely hard to drive on my side today," he added. "We will be looking at the data to see what is wrong."
As for being lapped today, Leclerc said that he wasn't going to let the speed advantage of the Mercedes cars get to him.
"I always try to modulate myself with the people around and I don't think we are so far off the Racing Point.
"We need to work and try and do the best we can with what we have for now."
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