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Sebastian Vettel tried to refute Mercedes' claim that Ferrari had the fastest car earlier this season, and gave evidence of its disappointing qualifying performance in Russia.
The wisdom seen earlier this year was that Ferrari had gained a performance advantage over Mercedes with engine upgrades at the British, German and Belgian Grands Prix. Lewis Hamilton, after the Belgian Grand Prix, spoke of the advantage in power – that the boss of the Mercedes team, Toto Wolff, did not understand at the beginning of the year – after the Belgian Grand Prix.
The theory was supported by GPS car data, which showed that the Ferrari was gaining an advantage over the runway sections where it was deploying power from the hybrid powertrain system. It soon became clear in the paddock that Ferrari had the fastest car and that Vettel, because of a series of errors and collisions, was not getting the most out of it.
But Vettel, who is 40 points behind Hamilton ahead of the Russian Grand Prix, thinks the advantage he would have had was surpassed by Mercedes. He estimates that the relative performance of both cars has been much more balanced throughout the season.
"I think it has always been very tight," he said after qualifying at 0.4 Saturday in Hamilton. "I think the other team communicated very well that she had a lower car, but I do not think that was the case.
"We have a solid car, we know it and a car we can work with, and hopefully in the race we will be more competitive and otherwise it will be difficult to beat them."
Vettel thinks that the pace of the race is particularly close but there have been bigger fluctuations in the performance in qualifying.
"It's not good to have such a gap, but I think I've been a lot more realistic about the differences in general and the performance between cars, I know we have a great car and I do not doubt that their car is very strong too and was very strong.
"I think it was a reasonable match and there were qualifying sessions where we got the upper hand by a little bit and they dominated a bit, but sometimes a bit more like today. [in Russia] or France or other breeds. We have a good car and we have to continue to improve it, but for the race, I'm pretty open. It's a long race, we'll see what happens. "
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