MOTORSPORT: Red Bull not in the F1 hunt

Ferrari and Mercedes are in a ding-dong battle for the Formula 1 World Championship, while the comparative lack of straight-line speed in Daniel Ricciardo’s Red Bull car has been horribly exposed at Britain’s ultra-fast Silverstone circuit.

Sebastian Vettel won the British Grand Prix for Ferrari while Lewis Hamilton made a remarkable comeback from last after three corners to finish runner-up for Mercedes.

Australian Ricciardo finished fifth, having lost the possibility of an unlikely podium by pitting for fresh tyres just before a late safety-car period.

“We just didn’t have the legs today,” carsales.com.au global ambassador Ricciardo said.

“We just didn’t have the speed on the straights to do much and behind Ferrari and Mercedes we were just too slow.”

Kimi Raikkonen was astoundingly fast in taking third place for Ferrari, despite a 10-second penalty for bumping Hamilton.

Valtteri Bottas, who led with five laps to go, slipped to fourth in his Mercedes ahead of Ricciardo in his Renault-powered Red Bull RB14, which the Aussie said had been “pretty good in clean air”.

“We just got unlucky [with the timing of the second pitstop] and lost track position,” Ricciardo said.

“We tried at the end to pass Bottas as he was struggling more with the tyres, but as soon as I got really close to him I felt like my tyres were the same age as his. You just lose the downforce and really struggle.

“It was a bit like last week [in Austria] following Kimi and I really needed him to make a mistake, otherwise on the straights, even with DRS (drag reduction system) they have a lot more power.”

Vettel had a sore neck throughout the weekend but snatched the lead from pole-position starter Hamilton at the off.

His victory was his fourth of the season and 51st of his career, lifting him to equal third with Alain prost on the all-time winners’ list behind Michael Schumacher’s 91 victories and Hamilton’s 65.

Hamilton was pitched into a spin at the third corner of the race as Raikkonen locked up and slid into the Brit, who dropped to the back of the field but then, after fearing his Merc was damaged, produced one of his trademark comeback drives.

The Mercedes camp suspects that recent early-race contact from the Ferraris has been deliberate, but the Italian stable dismisses that talk as “silly”.

After 10 of 21 rounds, with the next at Hockenheim in Germany on July 22, Vettel has stretched a one-point lead over Hamilton in the drivers’ championship to eight points, while Ferrari has doubled its edge on Mercedes in the constructors’ championship to 20 points.

“We have a very good car,” Vettel said of Ferrari, which is finally a consistent match for Mercedes in an era of V6 hybrids dominated by the German brand.

“We brought bits [to Britain] which seemed to work. Very, very happy with the result.

“Silverstone had been a difficult track for us [Mercedes had won there the past five years] but we were a match this year. I think we had pace in hand. If you have a car that is fast you can make things happen.”

Hamilton said it had been “great” to get back to second and contain the damage on the championship points table.

“The rear of the car was moving around a lot. I was nervous I had lost part of my floor or something because the car was moving for unknown reasons, but then it started to get better and better, after some tweaks to the settings,” Hamilton said.

“I was able to get the car more under control and the pace started to pick up. I’m grateful the car was in one piece and I’m grateful to get through.”

Ricciardo, who says it’s “looking more likely” he’ll remain at Red Bull with Mercedes and Ferrari options closed off, is fourth in the championship, 65 points behind Vettel and 10 behind third-placed Raikkonen, but only two ahead of Bottas.

The Aussie’s Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen didn’t add to his points tally in Britain but had the better weekend until a brake failure caused a spin and damaged his clutch, leaving his RB14 stuck in first gear.

“The [brake] pedal literally went to the floor, the rear brakes locked up and I spun off the track,” Verstappen said.

“Even without the brake issue we were just super-slow on the straights to do anything today. Just a huge drama.

“It's just incredibly frustrating how much we are lacking on the straights. It's a real bummer … tragic.

“It's like you are driving in a different series … a joke.”