5 races that cost Sebastian Vettel the championship

The 2018 F1 championship battle is over and Lewis Hamilton has his hands on his 5th title. Even though Hamilton won the championship quite comfortably with two races left in the season, it was closer than it appears especially in the first half of the season before the summer break. In order to win a championship, you will have to be flawless and this is what cost Sebastian Vettel his 5th title.

He had numerous race incidents which were avoidable. It wasn’t just him but the Ferrari team’s decision-making wasn’t too good either. Their strategies backfired big time. He started the season extremely well with a victory in Australia and Bahrain but things started falling apart after that. Let us look back at 5 races where Vettel failed to convert into big points:

#1 China GP

Vettel had 50 points in the bag coming into China GP, winning both in Melbourne and Bahrain. To add to it, he had an amazing qualifying session, getting his 52nd pole of his career, with his teammate Kimi Raikkonen starting 2nd on the grid.

The start was normal and Vettel was on course to hattrick victories but Toro Rosso’s Gasly crashed into teammate Hartley, bringing the safety car into action and the Red Bulls were quick to react bringing both Verstappen and Ricciardo into pits, and fit them with soft tyres.

It would prove to be a decisive move later in the race. In spite of losing a place apiece, they had the pace advantage over the Silver Arrows. Verstappen was ready to make some good overtakes but it all went wrong when he hit Vettel at the hairpin after the DRS zone.

This left a flatspot on the 4-time world champion’s car which dropped him back to 8th. Ricciardo went on to win the race with his trademark overtakes while Hamilton finished 4th.

#2 Monaco GP

The Red Bulls looked dominant all weekend, securing one-two in all the free practice sessions. It was expected that they would repeat this again in qualifying but the wall was waiting for Verstappen at the end of FP3 and the car wasn’t ready for Qualis.

Ricciardo got his pole ahead of Vettel, with Hamilton 3rd on the grid. Even though Ferrari had the race pace, it wasn’t easy to overtake at a street circuit with no room for error. In the race, Ricciardo had a faulty MGU-K (giving him 25% less horsepower) with only 6 gears working and Vettel was desperate to get ahead of him.

Ricciardo drove very carefully without any errors and the hard work paid off, denying the German the victory. This meant Vettel had to settle for 18 points, trailing his rival Hamilton by 14 points. Vettel was clearly frustrated to have failed to take advantage of Ricciardo’s position.

#3 German GP

It was Vettel’s home GP and everyone was backing the German driver after a famous win in Silverstone. Vettel didn’t disappoint his fans and put an immense lap to secure pole position, with his rival Hamilton halt in Q1 due to hydraulic issue in the car.

It was all good until the showers came during the race which changed the course of the race. The track got more slippery and the man who led the GP for most of the race crashed into the barriers on lap 52, allowing Hamilton, who started a distant 14th win the race, thanks to some brilliant strategy from the Silver Arrows.

This was the first victory for the Brit driver from starting outside the top 6, while his teammate finished 2nd.

With this win, an 8-point deficit to Vettel was converted to a 17-point lead leading into the Hungarian GP. After a disappointing performance in his home GP, this victory proved to be vital for Hamilton, stamping his authority in the championship battle.

#4 Italian GP

After a brilliant weekend at Spa, Ferrari had the clear advantage over the Mercs at Monza. They dominated all the practice sessions and snatched 1-2 in qualifying in front of their loyal fanbase, the Tifosi.

Kimi Räikkönen was on pole while Vettel started 2nd looking to reduce the deficit in the championship. Vettel defended too hard into the second chicane from Hamilton on lap 1 and the result was that he spun after a contact that put him to the back of the grid with a lot of work to do.

Hamilton, however, started pressurizing Räikkönen who was leading, and pitted 8 laps after the Fin did. With fresh rubber, Hamilton was soon at the back of the Ferrari and got into the lead with 8 laps to go.

Vettel had little to offer after the contact, yet fought up the pack to finish 4th,leaving him 30 points adrift of the championship leader. The Ferrari hasn’t won in Monza since 2010 with 7 podiums.

#5 Japanese GP

There was nothing more that could have gone wrong for Vettel in Suzuka. He had a disappointing qualifying session finishing 9th because of tricky weather conditions with Ferrari not getting their tyre choices right in Q3.

In contrast, Mercedes had a front row lockup with Verstappen in 3rd. It was lap eight when Vettel probably gave up his championship hopes when he tried to go down the inside of Max Verstappen at spoon corner, but spun off the track after contact.

He re-joined the track in 19th position far from where he wanted to be. Hamilton had a great race, starting well and won the race comfortably, with Bottas in 2nd place.

Vettel managed to get to P6 but Hamilton had a 67-point lead in the championship, meaning that if he outscored Vettel by 8 points at the next race, he would win the title. Vettel had a forgettable second part of the season. The summer break didn’t do too much good for the 4-time world champion.

Edited by Nishant Jayaram