Vettel hoping for two Hamilton DNF results

Sebastian Vettel still believes he can win the 2018 Formula 1 world championship despite being 50 points adrift of Lewis Hamilton, and is hoping for one or two DNF races for the Brit so that he can be in with a fighting chance.

In the Russian Grand Prix, Valtteri Bottas looked the likely winner but was forced to retreat and swap positions with Hamilton after receiving team orders from Toto Wolff.

With Vettel finishing in third, that allowed Hamilton to extend his lead at the top of the title rankings. However, the German will continue to believe he can catch up until it is mathematically impossible, and is hoping for his rival to perhaps not finish a couple of races to give him an edge.

"To be honest, I go race by race," Vettel said.

"Obviously, I’m clever enough – I wasn’t a genius in maths – but I was clever enough to pay attention to make it up myself but it’s not getting easier if we lose points.

"I still believe in our chances; yes, obviously it’s not getting bigger, as I said, if you finish behind but who knows, it takes one DNF and then all of a sudden things look different – ideally two! – which I’m not wishing on Lewis but you never know what happens.

"We need to stay on top of our game which maybe we haven’t been completely this weekend: make sure that from where we are now we focus on winning the last races."

Vettel admits Ferrari did not perform well enough in Sochi over the weekend, but that they need to be ready to take advantage of any mistakes made by Hamilton and Mercedes in the remaining races.

"We need to stay on top of our game which maybe we haven't been completely this weekend," the German continued.

"[We must] make sure that from where we are now we focus on winning the last races. It is not entirely in our hands. We need a bit of something to happen, but we need to make sure we are always there.

"So if it is a third we can get, or a win, we need to get it - to make sure we do everything. I still think if we win the next races we can put a lot of pressure on them and make something happen. It is not easy but I believe if everything goes well, we have a fair chance."

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