Vettel rivals launch defence of Ferrari star

Sebastian Vettel has come under fire in recent weeks as an error-strewn end to 2018 has seen his title hopes go up in smoke. However, many of his Formula 1 contemporaries, including Max Verstappen and Kimi Raikkonen stuck up for the German ahead of the Mexican GP, where Lewis Hamilton's championship win ahead of Vettel is likely to be confirmed.

CARLOS SAINZ

"I think it's always difficult to judge the performance of any other driver, because you don't know the car, you don't know what they're going through. Of course, there's been some mistakes that we've all seen but I think it's very easy to judge it from the outside and not know what is clearly going on in there. I really respect Sebastian, I think he's a four-time world champion for a meaning and he deserves to be a four-time world champion. He will come back eventually, I think he might have gone through a tough moment but I think he will be back."

SERGIO PEREZ

"Sebastian is a fantastic driver. It's very hard to judge the performance of someone when you're not in the team and you don't know exactly what's going on, so it makes no sense for me to say. Obviously we've seen some mistakes - probably at the end he was just desperate to try and achieve what was probably not possible. But he's a four time world champion for that reason. He has a great team, so I think he will be back to fight again and have a great opportunity to finally win. Mercedes also have a fantastic car so it was very hard for him."

KIMI RAIKKONEN

"It's one of those things, sometimes it happens and then you push and push until you can't run. It happened to him a few times but I think we will pull through it and it's part of the game."

MAX VERSTAPPEN

"I can only look at myself. I think it makes no sense to comment on another driver. I don't want to piss anyone off."

PIERRE GASLY

"I think it's part of racing, you're always driving at the limit. I think probably he overperformed with the car at the beginning of the season, a couple of times he managed to win races which they didn't probably have the potential to win them. And then of course expectations were really high, so a couple of mistakes in the second half of the season… He's the only one who can answer why and when you're fighting for the championship, I think it's just so much at the limit all the time. You try to achieve things, as Sergio said, that are probably not achievable with the car. As they all said he is a four-time world champion. I think he knows how to manage a championship. It's not the first time he's in this position but he's the only one who could answer that question."