F1 title race 'over' after Sebastian Vettel win, says Lewis Hamilton

Published on Sunday 26 June 2011 20:33

Lewis Hamilton believes this year's Formula 1 world title fight is almost over after watching Sebastian Vettel cruise to yet another victory.

Hamilton's demeanour was startlingly downbeat, to such an extent he even declared he is far from looking forward to the British Grand Prix in a fortnight's time for fear of performing worse.

What Hamilton described as "a shocking start" in yesterday's European Grand Prix resulted in a fourth-placed finish in his McLaren, 46 seconds adrift of a rampant Vettel who has won six of the eight races this season.

The 23-year-old has now extended his lead to 77 points over Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber, who finished third behind Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, and Jenson Button, a minute down in sixth, whilst Hamilton is 89 points adrift.

To put that into context, Vettel could miss the next three races and return at the Belgian Grand Prix at the end of August after F1's summer break and still be leading the championship.

When asked to assess the current standings, Hamilton replied: "It's finished really. In the sense of the championship it's almost over already."

Hamilton's mood failed to lighten when it came to assessing his home race at Silverstone. "I'm not looking forward to it, I'm really not looking forward to it," added Hamilton.

"Of course, I'm really looking forward to seeing the fans because they always put a spark in the weekend and make it that much brighter. And I'll be going there as prepared as I can be, racing as fast as I can, but we really might struggle.

"When you go to Silverstone the desire to win is even greater because it is your home race, and the fans are spectacular. But we're not fast enough, and with the regulations changing I personally think we're going to make another step backwards.

"I'm a little bit nervous about it. I think we might be affected more than the two teams ahead of us (Red Bull and Ferrari]. It will be even worse for us."

That regulation change sees a ban on off-throttle blown diffusers, a system that uses exhaust gases to increase downforce and so aid performance. The hope of many is that Red Bull will be greatly affected, although it is more likely they will be no worse off than anybody else.

Button, so euphoric after his win in Canada a fortnight ago, has called on McLaren to speed up the rate of development if the season is to avoid falling totally flat."We need some upgrades for Silverstone otherwise we're not going to be fighting the Ferraris and Red Bulls, which will be a shame at my home Grand Prix," said Button.

"At the moment Silverstone is not going to be a better circuit for us, so we need the upgrades to really challenge the cars in front.

"We can take some risks with some new parts, and hopefully we'll have that when we get there. So we need to get our heads down and improve the car, the package."

In contrast to a wet and wacky Canadian Grand Prix, one many hailed as among the greatest races of all time, Valencia was a stroll in the Spanish sunshine for Vettel. Button claimed before the race there would be no runaway win for Vettel, but how wrong he was as the German was faultless in taking the chequered flag for the 16th time in his career.

After finishing 10.8secs clear of Alonso and 27 ahead of Webber, Vettel described the race over the in-car radio as "better than anything I could imagine".

Although for many the race was a bore, after claiming back-to-back wins in Valencia - adding pole and fastest lap for good measure - Vettel said: "I enjoy it so much when it is between you and the car every single lap. For some reason I enjoy this track. Last year I had a very smooth weekend and again this year from the beginning to end - fantastic. The team did a phenomenal job preparing the car. We managed to put everything together and it was faultless this weekend."

For only the third time in F1 history - excluding the debacle of the 2005 United States GP - there were no retirements, with this race setting a record as 24 cars crossed the line. Ferrari's Felipe Massa sandwiched the McLarens in fifth. Scot Paul di Resta was 14th for Force India.