Sebastian Vettel expected to be lapped by race winner Lewis Hamilton despite a more competitive Hungarian Grand Prix.
By matching the strategy of those around him, the four-time world champion ran fifth before losing out to Alex Albon after an error in the closing laps to drop to sixth.
Just before, however, Hamilton, who lapped the entire field except the top four en route to an imperious victory, came waltzing through with the assistance of blue flags as he showed off Mercedes' incredible pace advantage.
“It was already clear he [Hamilton] would lap us before the race so it wasn’t a surprise," said Vettel.
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Instead, the German took solace from fighting in the top-six and believes it will be more representative of their competitiveness going forward.
“It was back to normal," he said of Ferrari's pace.
"Obviously Austria one was the outlier. Austria two didn’t happen and now we are here.
"I think probably today was where we would finish - arguably fifth or sixth, probably not further up.”
It was a miserable day for teammate Charles Leclerc, however, as Ferrari strategy left him exposed to 2021 teammate Carlos Sainz, who pushed him out the points late on.
LAP 61/70
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 19, 2020
Carlos Sainz waves goodbye to his 2021 team mate - as he passes Charles Leclerc to move into the points and take P10 👋#HungarianGP 🇭🇺 #F1 pic.twitter.com/n06P5UHkzt
“It’s disappointing but we just need to work now,” the Monegasque commented.
“To be honest, I think there was something wrong in the race. It just doesn’t match with what the car had in qualifying but also the day before on Friday and we’ve not changed much.
“We will be looking at the data to see what went wrong because the car was extremely hard on my side today.”
