World champion Lewis Hamilton has taunted his rivals Ferrari saying they need to get their act together to prevent this seasons Formula One championship becoming a one team race and a Mercedes battle.
Once again Ferrari failed to perform at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix whilst Vettel again managed a podium position he was once again a bridesmaid to drivers Valtteri Bottas who secured P1 with Lewis Hamilton in P2.
It was a relatively quite race with the main action taking place during the opening dash which saw Hamilton and Bottas come within centimeters of a collision as they drove wheel-to-wheel through the opening three bends in Baku. But thanks to the skill of both men, damage was avoided. Bottas prevailed, and it was where the race, which failed to live up to expectations, was ultimately won.
Ferrari sit 74 points adrift of Mercedes in the constructors' while Sebastian Vettel, third in the championship, is 35 behind Bottas.
Up until the second phase of Saturday qualifying, it seemed Ferrari were on it. Charles Leclerc led every practice session and seemed destined for his second pole position in four races and then it all went wrong the Monegasque hit the wall crashing out of practice session 2. Honest to a fault LeClerc was quick to blame himself for the lack of judgement but prmised to bring the action in the main race - which he tried too. Sadly poor judgement from the team saw a delayed pit stop on lap 47 comprise his place and he was never fully able to recover
Last night Hamilton called on the Scuderia to improve in order to take the fight to Mercedes, "Both Valtteri and I are delivering on the laps and the team are pumping on all cylinders and they (Ferrari) are not," he added. "When, if, they start pumping on all cylinders and start delivering, then we'll have much more of a fight."
With the European leg of the season about to start with the Spanish Grand Prix next on May 12th let's see if Ferrari take the bait!
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