German GP: Mercedes say they had fastest car in F1 triple header

Mercedes believe they had F1's fastest car during the sport's triple-header and intend to rebound from recent disappointments and "kick on" in the final sprint before the sport's summer break.

Ahead of the Anglo-German's second 'home' grand prix in a row at Hockenheim this weekend, which marks the halfway point of the 21-round season, Toto Wolff says there was a "silver lining" for the Silver Arrows across the previous three races despite falling behind Ferrari in the Drivers' and Constructors' Championships.

"We didn't score as many points in the triple-header as we had hoped for," said Wolff after Mercedes were outscored by both Ferrari and Red Bull.

"A lot of that was down to our own mistakes. However, there is a silver lining to this - while we didn't maximise on points, we did bring the quickest car to all three races."

Mercedes (France), Red Bull (Austria) and Ferrari (Britain) split the victories between them across the sport's taxing first triple header of race weekends, but F1's reigning champions claimed pole position at all three events.

Technical reshuffle afoot at Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton trails Vettel by eight points in the Drivers' Championship, while Mercedes are 20 adrift of Ferrari in the teams' standings, after an opening 10 rounds Wolff described as a "decent first half" to 2018.

"On the one hand, we've left points on the table and had to do damage limitation more often than we would have wanted," added the Mercedes team principal.

"On the other hand, we still scored a good amount of points, both drivers have shown strong performances and we have a fast car.

"So there are many reasons why we're looking forward to the second half of the 2018 season; we're hungry, ambitious and want to kick on from here."

The German GP, back on the calendar after another year's absence, was won by a Mercedes driver on the last two occasions it was held and this year is the first of back-to-back race weekends with Hungary.