Vettel confident Ferrari remain the team to beat

Sebastian Vettel says he is confident Ferrari have a title-winning car, despite coughing up top spot in the drivers' championship to Lewis Hamilton at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Vettel controlled the race expertly from pole for the most part, but was a victim of the late madness in Baku to leave him fourth.

The safety car prompted by Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen's crash left Vettel behind Valtteri Bottas and the German's immediate attempts to regain first place left him skating off the track at turn one, damaging his front tyres in the process.

Bottas then suffered a puncture after running through debris, handing a victory to Hamilton, who is now four points ahead in the championship.

Vettel has missed out on points in the past two races due to incidents, having won the opening two races of 2018.

However, having outperformed the Mercedes pair for the most part in Baku, Vettel is confident the Scuderia remain the team to beat, having spent parts of 2017 playing catch-up.

"The most important thing is that we have a good car and we have a car that we can work with in qualifying which if we can put at the front we have good pace for the race," he said.

"I am not worried at all as it is quite different to last year in qualifying where most of the year we were competitive enough.

"Then later on in the season in the race we weren't competitive enough to make things happen but if you are quick enough you can make this happen.

"Now the way the race turned out today for some people good and for some people bad.

"Speak to Valtteri I am pretty sure he is not happy because it was his win.

"That's how it goes because I'm not worried because the car is there and we need to make sure it stays there.''