Hakkinen praises Verstappen and believes Ferrari could be winning

Former F1 driver Mika Hakkinen believes that Ferrari could be leading the championship at the moment but have made too many "stupid mistakes".

Hakkinen also had the time to heap praise on Red Bull driver Max Verstappen, with the former F1 driver believing that Verstappen's impressive second place finish in Singapore has gone under the radar following Lewis Hamilton's win in Asia.

"Everyone was talking about the pole position of Lewis Hamilton, but I think Max Verstappen's performance in the Red Bull Racing at 0.3 seconds from Hamilton was very impressive, knowing that the RB14 is not the same engine performance as the Mercedes, this was an excellent performance," Hakkinen is quoted in his Unibet column.

Hakkinen also believes that Ferrari should be leading this World Championship instead of Mercedes, who extended their advantage to 37 points when Hamilton passed the chequered flag last Sunday.

"Ferrari should have always led this championship, but they made so many stupid mistakes and strange decisions," Hakkinen claimed. "Vettel's little mistake on Friday, for example, has the whole rhythm for the rest of the weekend.

"They came backn stronger in the next training, but I don't understand the choice of tyres in Q2, Ferrari is making it very difficult for themselves.

"I saw that Vettel said that he would like to ask Schumacher for help, I can understand Michael could really get everything out of the team, he worked very closely with engineers, management and the rest of the staff."