Hamilton: "Mercedes showing we are the best team"

Lewis Hamilton has said that his Mercedes team is clearly showing that it is the stronger team in its fight against Ferrari, now that the German squad has a 55-point advantage over its Italian rival ahead of Hungary this weekend.

The gap at the top of the standings widened following Hamilton's storming drive to victory last time out at the British Grand Prix, but Mercedes still cannot afford to let its guard down. Hamilton says that the battle with Ferrari remains extremely close, even if Mercedes has demonstrated its superiority.

"I think we're still showing that we are the best team," he stated in Budapest. "It's been great work by the team collectively - and we've not even brought many updates to the car. The last race we didn't bring an update, so we've just been able to exploit it more and learn about the car.

"It still remains quite close. We've mostly had the upper hand in qualifying. If you look at the qualifying stats we've had that gap and then the race gets a little bit closer and it's been a bit more scattered through the 10 races. But we've definitely managed to understand the car better, understand the tyres better and really start to utilise the car in its happy envelope."

Meanwhile, the Ferrari camp is facing what has been described as a "must-win" race for it. This seemingly suggests that a lack of success at the Hungaroring would seriously damage the Scuderia's championship hopes, but Hamilton's chief rival Sebastian Vettel has denied this and is confident for the weekend.

"I'm not stressing too much," he insisted. "On paper, it should be a good race for us. I like the track, we know what we have to do. The fact that it's the last race before the summer break doesn't change anything. I'm feeling positive. We know the car is strong. We know we can fight for the victory."

Mason Hawker