Heading into Sunday's race with understandably high expectations, Ferrari could only manage fourth and fifth due to "poor execution", says team boss.

Though the Maranello outfit scored one point more than title rivals Mercedes, Fred Vasseur is the first to admit that it could, indeed should, have been more.

"It's difficult to clearly understand the pace," said the Frenchman. "It's not a good Sunday, because when you are 1-2 on Friday you expect much more than P4-P5.

"On top of that we made too many mistakes," he continued, "starting with the start, with the penalty, with the fact that Max overtook us on track, that each time that we were doing a pitstop we are losing a position 0.2 or 0.3 seconds. Everything went wrong, but for sure we have to do a much better job on Sunday.

"I think the pace was better," he insisted, "the pure pace, the pure pace of the team was probably better this weekend than Spa or Silverstone. We were in front in FP1, in FP2, we were able to fight for pole with Lewis...

"I think the execution was very poor. It's more the execution."

A slow second stop saw Hamilton leapfrogged by Kimi Antonelli, the Briton further compromised by a subsequent penalty for speeding in the pitlane. Vasseur was also miffed by Charles Leclerc's failure to stick with the McLarens at the start, allowing both to get ahead, along with Max Verstappen.

Hamilton has questioned the decision to pit him under the VSC for softs, however Vasseur defended the move, insisting that Verstappen had shown what was possible.

"We realised that the soft was not that bad, we used the stint of Max and we decided to go for the soft because we had the oldest hard of the field. As we had a poor start, we tried to do the undercut, we put the new tyres very early, and you have to take decisions before the results. I think if I had to do the same, I would do the same today, try to push with the soft."

Meanwhile, despite Toto Wolff questioning the Italian team's upgrade programme and whether it compromises the budget cap, Vasseur insists that further packages will be introduced.

"We know that we have to improve on the engine side, and we will do it, even if the inertia on the engine is much higher than on the chassis," he said.

"The most important would be to be able to keep the pace into the development," he admitted. "McLaren did a huge step forward," he continued, referring to the upgrades the Woking team took to Hungary, "but they don't have exactly the same philosophy, because they are bringing a big package. I think the last one was in Miami, Canada.

"For sure, each time that they are bringing something, they are making a huge step. But we have a different approach, trying to bring parts every race. We have to keep this momentum, because there are still twelve races to go. I don't know if it's exactly 11, 12 or 10, but it's a lot. And we have room for improvement on the chassis everywhere, and we have to keep this pace."

Hamilton, with an eye on Mercedes, which has yet to use its ADUO upgrade, admits that Ferrari's engine upgrade is vital.

"Iit has been amazing given I think we've been probably like three- or four-tenths down on the straights in pace and power for the first half of the season," he said. "I know the guys are pushing hard to bring upgrades for that.

"We've been bringing upgrades weekend in, weekend out," he added. "We've got a bit more to come in the second half, and we just keep on pushing.

"I think the second half will be stronger. Usually the second half is a stronger period for me. So I'll really take this time to re-set and try and come back stronger, fitter and better mentally prepared."