Vettel reckons Mercedes is the team to beat in Austria

Sebastian Vettel believes that Mercedes are the favourites this weekend in Austria after the first two practice sessions. Lewis Hamilton topped the time sheets in both outings, with Vettel appearing off the pace in the morning session.

However, in the afternoon he was able to claw back some time and finished just over one-tenth of a second behind his championship rival. Last time out in Baku, Ferrari was over a second behind Mercedes, but Vettel isn't expecting a repeat of that in Austria. 

"Baku was a one-off in many ways, qualifying for us wasn't good," he said after FP2. "Positioning was not too bad but the gap was too big. I didn't feel as confident and comfortable as we should have but Sunday was OK. Generally, Sundays have been OK. For here, I haven't seen much yet but it looks close.

"It's a short track so you imagine it'll be close. Mercedes is the favourite. They seem very quick, whenever they went out today. We'll see what happens tomorrow."

"We understood what happened in Baku but it's very different here, it's a bit warmer, particularly asphalt temperatures. Tyres are a bit different, warm-up doesn't seem to be so bad, so it's quite a big gap [between compounds]. But we'll see, today is Friday, it's difficult to judge, the car feels really good all around the lap."

Fergal Walsh