Lewis Hamilton says he still has a lot to do to beat Ferrari faster | sport

Lewis Hamilton insisted that his Mercedes team will have to perform at its peak in the second half of the Formula 1 season if he wants to win a fifth world championship. The British driver won the Hungarian Grand Prix on Sunday and now has 24 points ahead of his title rival, Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari. However, he warns that the Scuderia had the fastest car, a view backed by an optimistic Vettel.

Hamilton won in Hungary after a dominant race in pole position, a big win for Mercedes on a track where they expected to be weak, the proliferation of slow to medium turns not playing on the strengths of the W09. The victory completes a remarkable turnaround for Hamilton in the last two races. During the previous round in Germany, he came from the 14th to win, while Vettel made a mistake and collapsed. The head has changed hands six times this season, but the 31-point advantage for Hamilton since Hockenheim gave him the biggest advance the pilot has had in F1 in the summer

. Hamilton suffered from three mechanical failures and three bad strategy shots, but the British driver thinks his team has always had the advantage

"This year, Ferrari really has the upper hand in terms of pace," did he declare. "But I think that overall, hopefully, we have done a slightly better job, we have work to do, we have things to improve. catching up with them – but we have to continue to progress with all the other elements, which allows us to beat Ferrari when they do not bring their A-game. "

The Ferrari has shown a higher pace in the last two races and the Scuderia has clearly stolen a march in the development of the engine. Given that their car was the best of both this season, Vettel could have expected to be leading at this point, but in the first 12 races, he made four mistakes that cost him points. He took a grid penalty for preventing Carlos Sainz from qualifying for the Red Bull Ring. In Baku, he lost places, too aggressive at the restart, in France he hit Valtteri Bottas in the first corner then he went to the gates in the wet in Germany. Nevertheless, Vettel remains optimistic that he has the car to challenge and that he will do it in the second half of the year

"This year, the pendulum seems to oscillate once again. this side, once on this side, "said the German. "Obviously, if it is like that, consistency is the key." Score points I did not do a favor in Germany, but I think it's part of the race. Last year, we lost the championship because our car was not fast enough to be a match in the latter part of the season, despite what happened with the DNF. Now that our car is more efficient, that our car is stronger and that it still has a lot of potential to trigger – I'm pretty confident with what we can improve.This should be an exciting second part of the year. "

Hamilton, however, has a tremendous recent record in the second half of the season. In 2014, he retired to Spa after being hit by Nico Rosberg, but won five races in a row between Monza and Austin en route to the title. During his other two years of championship with Mercedes, 2015 and 2017, he won five wins in six races immediately after Hungary and was hoping for similar results this year.

"The second period is always exciting, always intense" I said. "The second period is usually a bit better on our side, so we'll get ready and make sure we get back even stronger."