Like Alex Albon, Sebastian Vettel's weekend in Portimao is best forgotten, both drivers enjoying almost anonymous Sunday afternoons.

On the other hand, Charles Leclerc's drive to fourth - not to mention his mega lap on Saturday - was among the stand-outs of the weekend.

However, having qualified well at Mugello and again at the Nurburgring, come race day performance fell away, this weekend it didn't, the Monegasque finishing fourth, albeit over a minute behind the winner.

The Maranello outfit brought a number of updates to the Iberian Peninsular, not least a new diffuser, however, team boss, Mattia Binotto was keen to play down suggestions that this weekend's performance signals that Ferrari has turned the corner on a trying season and is about to stage a revival.

"I don't think it's day and night compared to the Mugello," said Binotto, "I think the car was slightly improved, but it's not a completely different picture.

"When I think the battle is so close in the midfield, a couple of tenths may help being ahead of staying behind," he added. "I think in the Mugello our race pace was very poor, compared to qualifying, I think here the race pace has been better, but there are many reasons for it and not only the car upgrades.

"I think it's important for us that we prove in the next races that they are bringing us the performance we've seen here or if it was just specific to Portimao."

With five races remaining, Ferrari remains sixth in the team standings, the gap to third-placed Racing Point just 33 points.

Check out our Sunday gallery from Portimao, here.

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by flyinglap, 27/10/2020 13:40

"I can't help noticing that with just 33 points separating Ferrari (6th) from Racing Point (3rd) in the Constructors Championship, and with potentially tens of millions of dollars in prize money in play, Ferrari now essentially relies on Vettel (13th with only 18 points) to bridge the gap by assisting Leclerc (5th with 75 points - more than four times as many); while Vettel is contracted to drive for Racing Point / Aston Martin next year, and while supposedly he cannot fathom why he is not "able" (or willing?) to extract the same performance as Leclerc from his Ferrari. If Vettel continues in the same way for the remainder of the season, Racing Point / Aston Martin will succeed in amortizing his entire contract even before he starts driving for them. If I were in charge at Ferrari, I would readily thank Sebastian for his loyal services and I would bring in a "wild card" substitute for the last races of the season, possibly from Indy, or even someone such as George Russell via an arrangement with the new owners of Williams, with the brief to score as many points as possible. It is worth recalling that, back in 1982, Mario Andretti was flown in from the States in place of seriously injured Didier Pironi for the Italian Grand Prix and he readily put the Ferrari on pole at Monza finishing third in the race in what was to be his last Grand Prix at 42 years of age."

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2. Posted by Great_white_shark, 26/10/2020 20:22

"@kenji gotta love the armchair lawyers. They never fail to amuse "

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3. Posted by Greg, 26/10/2020 15:26

"@kenji. Love the quote about truth."

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4. Posted by kenji, 26/10/2020 12:53

"@ Wokingchap...only in your opinion. If you are referring to the last episode with the FIA vis a vis suspected fuel anomalies you must take into account that there was no categoric denunciation. They have not been found guilty of anything and the presumption of innocence must prevail. Let me quote you this,
'Truth is not an opinion,idea or emotion. Truth is a binary concept of 'yes it happened' or 'no, it did not happen'. To entangle opinion with truth. is the beginning of a lie. Many followers have many opinions including me."

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5. Posted by Wokingchap, 26/10/2020 10:21

"When ferrari finds pace, it smells."

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Binotto: Let's not get carried away

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