German Grand Prix: Sebastian Vettel needs to keep pressure firmly on Lewis Hamil

Sebastian Vettel needs to keep the pressure firmly on Lewis Hamilton at this weekends German Grand Prix At the midway point of the Formula One season the 11th race out of 21 Vettel holds only an eightpoint lead over rival Lewis Hamilton in an intriguing title contestVettel started strongly then Hamilton took over and now Vettel appears to be in the ascendancy again While he leads Hamilton only 43 in wins this season Vettels most recent victory was particularly poignant seeing it was at Hamiltons home track at Silverstone where Hamilton has enjoyed huge success Vettels win there heaped more misery on the British driver considering hed experienced a rare retirement at the Austrian GP one week earlierIn previous years Ferrari was the team experiencing technical problems and frustrating inconsistency Now the roles appear reversed and Mercedes is the team under pressure Having won the last four drivers and constructors championships often by huge margins Mercedes lags 20 points behinds Ferrari There have been communication errors and strategy mistakes within Mercedes For Hamilton who along with Vettel is vying for a coveted fifth F1 crown these problems are hard to acceptLast year the pressure seemed to affect Vettel more but this time Hamilton is the one showing signs of strain Rapidly overtaken from pole position at the British GP Hamilton was then shunted off the track following a collision with Ferraris Kimi Raikkonen After Hamilton fought back brilliantly from last place to an impressive second place he made comments about Ferraris interesting tactics implying Raikkonen had done it on purpose as part of team strategyHamilton subsequently apologized calling his own comment dumb While Vettel has upped his level from 2017 Hamilton has still shown his trademark speed and consistency aside from a poor start at Silverstone Mercedes has often taken the blame for Hamiltons setbacks right up to the top Weve left points on the table and had to do damage limitation more often than we would have wanted said Toto Wolff the head of motorsportA lot of that was down to our own mistakes With Mercedes wobbling and Hamilton getting agitated the timing seems right for Vettel to strike another blow at Hockenheim on Sunday The German race is returning after being dropped last year for financial reasons Home fans will be in the unusual position of cheering a German driver Vettel in an Italian car competing against a British driver Hamilton and his Finnish teammate Valtteri Bottas in German carsIf any one of the three wins it will feel like a victory for Germany Going to Hockenheim always feels like coming home Wolff said Its only about a 90minute drive from the Daimler headquarters in Stuttgart The Hockenheimring as the circuit is called is in in southwest Germanys BadenWuerttemberg region which borders with FranceIt features fast straights in the first half of the 46kilometer 285mile track meaning fans can hope for a thrilling 67lap speed duel between Mercedes and Ferrari But Red Bull is waiting to pounce While Red Bull is not as quick as its main rivals the gap has been closed this season and Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen have three victories between them Ricciardo has won two while Verstappen is driving impressively after a rocky startThe 20yearold Dutchman the youngest to win an F1 race and to qualify on the front row aged just 18 has four podium finishes in the past six races and is showing the kind of form which earned him a bumper new contract last yearAlso Read British GP Sebastian Vettel Extends Lead Over Lewis Hamilton After Dramatic RaceCatch up on all the latest sports news and updates here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updatesThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Except for the change in headline the story has been provided ASIS AS AVAILABLE without any verification or editing from our side Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever