As speculation mounts over Ferrari's sudden loss of power being down to the FIA installing a second sensor on the Italian team's controversial second battery in its energy storage system, Sebastian Vettel has claimed that Mercedes hyped-up Ferrari's apparent superiority in previous races.

Though the Ferrari did appear to have a power advantage from the Red Bull Ring through to Monza, it seems to has clearly lost it in the last two races.

However, ignoring talk of the apparent increase in power and the subsequent loss, Vettel claims all is not what it appears.

I think it's always been very close," says the German. "I think the other side has been very good at communicating that they had an inferior car, but I don't think that was the case.

"It's not nice to have a gap like that," he added, referring to the 0.5s advantage Mercedes enjoyed in qualifying in Russia, "but I think I have been way more realistic about the gaps in general and the performance between the cars.

"I know we have a great car and I'm not doubting that, but I believe their car is very strong too and has been very strong.

"I think it has been a reasonable match and there have been qualifying sessions where we had the upper hand by a tiny bit and they had the upper hand by a little bit, but sometimes also a bit more like in Russia or France or other races. We have a good car and we need to keep improving it."

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1. Posted by Mad Matt, 03/10/2018 11:47

"While not ruling our anything dodgy it's worth remembering that working the tyres in the right way could be a factor. It's possible that some of the aero changes have upset the red cars ability to do that.

Years ago the tyres were not well understood or even possible to monitor in so much detail but today the teams can and have found that getting them in the right window makes a difference. I think 0.5s a lap could be explained by that. If you can't get the grip, you have to accelerate more gently so you get lower top speeds, if you get less grip you can't corner as fast, can't brake as hard etc. etc."

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Vettel: Mercedes hyped-up Ferrari advantage

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