Hamilton pessismistic over title chances after Vettel dominates at Spa

Lewis Hamilton says Sebastian Vettel is in control of the 2018 title race, despite the Mercedes man enjoying a 17-point lead with eight races to go. Vettel dominated the Belgian Grand Prix on Sunday to trim Hamilton's advantage, with Ferrari's pace advantage coming to the fore at Spa-Francorchamps.

Although Hamilton took pole in the wet on Saturday, Vettel was supreme come Sunday, taking the lead from Hamilton after four turns - just managing to make the move stick before the safety car was called amid first-corner chaos between Nico Hulkenberg, Fernando Alonso and Charles Leclerc.

Upcoming trips to Monza and Singapore will likely see Ferrari enter as favourites for victory once again, with Hamilton struggling to see how he can keep Vettel at bay.

"I don't really know what we can do, we've just got to keep working," Hamilton told Sky Sports.

"In low-speed areas we can definitely improve, that's where our car is probably weakest, and then we need to see if we can bring more power.

"But Sebastian did a great job today, he was solid and made no mistakes, so that’s going to be hard to beat.

"Minus seven points in the next eight races each race is going to be a lot of points. I'm not anticipating it - I hope it's not the case - but if we continue to have the lack of pace like today it will continue to be minus seven points."

Not the easiest of days for @LewisHamilton - but it's P2 and another trophy for the collection. Next up, Monza. ???????????? pic.twitter.com/uJtgXJNfsz — Mercedes-AMG F1 (@MercedesAMGF1) August 26, 2018

Hamilton looked powerless to prevent Vettel blasting past him on the Kemmel Straight and suggested that even if the safety car had forced Vettel to switch back, it would have made little difference.

"He had the perfect gap between me and him going into Eau Rouge," Hamilton said.

"There's just not anything I can do to stop it being that gap. Naturally you try to come out the corner and get far enough ahead so there's not enough time for them to catch up but, jeez, he sailed past me like I wasn't even there.

"There's nothing we could do about that, I kind of knew it was going to happen.

"At the restart I was hoping I could turn the head on it a little bit but he was rapid out of the last corner and then out of turn one so he was miles ahead and I couldn't catch him. Even though I was in his tow I wasn't catching him.

"They just blitzed us today, there's not really another way of saying it, 11 seconds is a big, big gap."