Another difficult day for Ferrari at Silverstone qualifying

Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel completed the latest sorry chapter of 2020 for Ferrari in qualifying eighth and 12th for the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix.

In 2019, Ferrari took pole on nine separate occasions. In successive weekends at Silverstone, the team has failed to qualify within a second of the pole-sitter.

This second weekend, with the tyres a step softer, the gap extended to +1.4 seconds and Vettel, having flirted with Q2 elimination at the British Grand Prix, was this time found wanting.

A team with more wins, podiums, one-two finishes, pole positions and championship titles than any other in the history of the sport, the midfield is not where Ferrari expects to ply its trade.

However, Sebastian Vettel declared himself "happy" with his P12 qualifying effort.

Speaking to Sky Sports F1, the German said; "I am always optimistic. Looking at the positives, I was happy with my laps and it felt like everything there was.

"I've had worse laps in my life and finished a lot higher up so happy with that."

He added: "We were not able to make a step forward [from last weekend]. We tried lots of things, tried lots of things in the car.

"I tried to reset myself as much as I can so I hope for a better day tomorrow, but I think since last week we are pretty much where we are now."

Leclerc, who benefited from late race drama in the British Grand Prix to score an unexpected second podium of the season, shared this acceptance of Ferrari's position in 2020.

He commented: "I think it is a bit more [of a] realistic picture for us, to be honest.

"We have been struggling more than last week here. Especially with the softer tyres, we seem to be more aggressive on them and we don’t even manage to finish the full lap in Q3. They’re dropping off quite a lot in the last sector and I lost quite a lot of lap time there.

"Not a lot we can do for now. It’s like this."

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