Sebastian Vettel has acknowledged Lewis Hamilton was the “better” man as he wrapped up the Formula 1 title with two races to go in Mexico.
The German gave it his best shot on Sunday passing the Mercedes driver on track but his eventual second place finish behind race winner Max Verstappen wasn’t enough to stop Hamilton, who crossed the line in fourth.
“It is not an easy day but well deserved [for Hamilton] so congratulations to him and his team they did a superb job,” the Ferrari driver said, ending his post-race interview to shake Lewis’ hand.
“We have to accept that and say congratulations. We would have liked to have hung in there longer but it was not to be.
“He drove superb all year and was the better one of us two. [Title] number five is something incredible.”
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Much like 2017, it was a number of errors and bad results after the summer break which put pay to an impressive start to the year for Vettel, who won the opening two races in Australia and Bahrain.
While clearly disappointed to see another year pass by, the 31-year-old insists he will try again next season.
“I congratulated him, asked him to keep pushing next year and we’ll fight him again,” he added.
All is not completely lost for Ferrari this season, with their second and third places in Mexico seeing the gap in the Constructors’ close to 55 points with two races still to go in Brazil and Abu Dhabi.