Had to raise the bar against Sebastian Vettel: Lewis Hamilton
Formula 1 | December 24, 2017 19:05 ISTHamilton who holds the record for highest pole positions (72) said he was assured from the beginning of doing well in the 2017 season.
Hamilton who holds the record for highest pole positions (72) said he was assured from the beginning of doing well in the 2017 season.
The 30-year-old German finished behind Mercedes-Amg driver Lewis Hamilton in the 2017 F1 driver standings.
The Brit driver won the F1 championship by a margin of 46 points over Vettel whose campaign imploded with crashes and reliability issues and resulted in a series of poor results in Singapore, Malaysia and Japan.
Hamilton's winning margin of 46 points over Vettel does not reflect an often tense title battle, one in which Ferrari had a genuine chance of breaking Mercedes' stranglehold until Vettel's alarming dip.
Ferrari finished second in the constructor standings with 522 points below Mercedes-AMG (668) who topped the chart in the 2017 season.
The Briton raced to the top of the leaderboard late in the sun-drenched afternoon session, placing 0.273 seconds ahead of Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas.
Vettel was .149 seconds behind Hamilton, and Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo was .303 back in third.
Vettel won the last race in Brazil, but Hamilton clinched his fourth Formula One title — and third with Mercedes — the race before and faces no pressure in the season finale.
With Hamilton wrapping up this year's title two races ago, the pressure is off this week at the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Vettel started second on the grid, but overtook pole sitter Valtteri Bottas of Mercedes on the first lap and then led most of the way.
Vettel will be seen in action in the next Formula One race of 2017, which will take place on November 12.
From 2021, teams will still use the 1.6 Litre, V6 Turbo Hybrid, but - crucially - it will be run at 3,000 rpm higher to increase noise.
Vettel won his 50th career pole position on Saturday and isn't quite ready to concede the title to Hamilton.
Despite Ferrari's status as Formula One's richest and most popular team, it hasn't won a driver's championship since Kimi Raikkonen in 2007.
Hamilton tightened his control on the F1 season title by winning the U.S. Grand Prix on Sunday ahead of title rival Sebastian Vettel, who finished second.
The Mercedes driver holds a 59-point lead over Vettel with four races to go and Vettel will be desperate to push for the win.
Hamilton has won the last three years at a Circuit of the Americas track that has favoured Mercedes' power.
With five races remaining in the season, Lewis Hamilton leads Sebastian Vettel by 34 points in the drivers' championship.
Having seen both of its cars fail to score points at the previous race in Singapore, Ferrari lost Kimi Raikkonen moments before this race.
Max Verstappen qualified third ahead of Red Bull teammate Daniel Ricciardo, while Hamilton's teammate Valtteri Bottas was fifth.
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