’Nervous’ Vettel still favourite - Fittipaldi

Emerson Fittipaldi thinks Ferrari is still in the box seat to win this year’s world championship.

Sebastian Vettel lost his narrow 1-point lead and dropped to 14 points behind Lewis Hamilton at Paul Ricard, following a messy, crash-strewn early phase of the race.

"From the first laps Vettel was too aggressive and then he got nervous," F1 legend Fittipaldi told La Gazzetta dello Sport.

"But technically Ferrari has more chances to win and in fact in the last 3 or 4 grands prix Mercedes has understood how much Ferrari has improved. Toto Wolff was very surprised by the performance of the Scuderia," he added.

"This championship is very balanced, even with a Red Bull that is very strong," said Fittipaldi.