Just a few days before the end of 2018, it's a good time to take a look back at what happened in the F1 championship.
It was a season of 21 races, including the French Grand Prix, which was held at Paul Ricard. At the beginning of the season, Vettel made a perfect start, claiming victory at the first 2 races. Some bad results for the German and the fact that Ricciardo prevented him from winning at Monte Carlo (where passing is impossible), allowed Hamilton to stay close for the championship battle.
The next missed opportunity for Vettel was at Austria, where his rival didn't score any points, but failed to win. In fact he finished third behind Verstappen and his teammate, with just one separating him from Hamilton. In the following race, the GP of Great Britain, Vettel got it right and finished in front of Hamilton.
Hamilton, after losing in his home, took his revenge from Vettel and won at the Hockenheim, showing that apart from talent, one must also be lucky. The German, made a mistake under wet conditions and ended up in the barrier, while he was leading comfortably. The Briton, who had started 14th (!), managed to win that race.
The last strong appearance by Vettel, was at the Belgian GP, where he incredibly passed Hamilton, after the Eau Rouge. After that race, Vettel vanished. The Mercedes driver took the chequered flag at the following 4 consecutive races. Even when Hamilton couldn't win at the US GP, the Ferrari driver was not fast enough, not only to win, but at least to be in front of him. So the gap in the championship kept growing, as it is illustrated in the figure bellow:
Comments