Vettel pinpoints moment he lost title to Hamilton

Sebastian Vettel says his errors at the German and Italian Grands Prix are not to blame for his failure to beat Lewis Hamilton in the 2018 Formula 1 title race. Hamilton was crowned world champion for the fifth time at the Mexican Grand Prix, seeing off Vettel and Ferrari for a second straight season.

Vettel's victories at Silverstone and Spa-Francorchamps this year were quickly tempered in the grands prix that followed.

After ending Hamilton's winning run at his home race, Vettel could not follow it up with a home triumph of his own – spinning out at the Sachs Kurve to let Hamilton through to win.

The Tifosi were also disappointed when Vettel collided with Hamilton in Italy and the Brit was able to get the better of Kimi Raikkonen.

Asked if Monza or Hockenheim was the turning point in his season, Vettel replied: "None of the two, to be honest. For me it was more Singapore.

"I told him it was well deserved and to enjoy it. Number five, it's something incredible. He drove superbly all year. He was the better one of us two"

- Sebastian Vettel pic.twitter.com/hxL6x6UujX — Formula 1 (@F1) October 29, 2018

"From Singapore onwards we just didn't have the pace to keep up with Mercedes for a couple of races. And then obviously some other things happened on top that didn't help and we couldn't score the points due to mistakes that we did, mistakes that I did.

"I can't be too hard on myself with what happened in Germany because it's not like… I've done much bigger mistakes this year but obviously it was the most costly one.

"Unfortunately it's part of racing: when you push you might be sometimes pushing a little bit too hard. I chose the wrong corner as well.

"But anyway, it's behind me and I'm not really thinking about that too much. I consider it part of racing and it happens to others as well.

"Seeing that [we] struggled in the last couple of weeks, just for pace and speed, was probably more defining than that."

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