Vettel opens gap leaving Hamilton to accept title race is virtually over

Vettel romped to his sixth win in eight races this season, and if you take the end of last year into account the 23-year-old German has taken the chequered flag in nine of the last 12.

Yesterday’s European Grand Prix triumph was as comfortable as it gets for Vettel, completing Formula 1’s equivalent of the hat-trick as he won from pole and had the fastest lap to boot.

The reigning champion now has a 77-point lead over Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber and McLaren’s Jenson Button, with Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso 89 and 99 adrift respectively.

The question now is, at which race will Vettel win the title, not that he is assessing such a scenario.

“I wasn’t good in maths. I liked maths, but . . .” said Vettel.

“It’s obviously good to know we are in the lead, by how many points I don’t really care.

“People tell me often enough, so I don’t need to check. Sometimes they get it wrong, surprising, but it happens.

“I think we will find out soon enough when it matters, whether we are in a good position or not.”

Unlike in Canada a fortnight ago when he offered his rivals a glimmer of hope with a last-lap mistake, on this occasion he was faultless.

In completing successive wins at the Valencia Street Circuit, Vettel brought home his Red Bull 10.8 seconds clear of Fernando Alonso in his Ferrari, who at least gave his Spanish fans something to cheer, with Mark Webber completing the podium in his Red Bull.

After finishing second in each of the three previous races at this venue, McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton was a distant fourth, 46secs behind Vettel.

The German is now virtually the equivalent of three race wins ahead of Webber and Button, who was a minute down in sixth in his McLaren.

After all the drama and excitement of a fortnight ago with what many observers and pundits hailed as one of Formula 1’s greatest races, this was the complete opposite.

Since its introduction on the calendar in 2008, this circuit has never been conducive to close, enthralling racing, and so it proved again.

Even with the 25-turn track operating two DRS overtaking zones, the number of passes involving the front-runners could be counted on the fingers of one hand.

From wacky in the wet in Canada, yesterday had a snooze in the sun feel about it, such was the lack of overall entertainment.

The race had its moments, not least the start that proved to be a calamity for both Hamilton and Button, the latter of whom believed there would be no runaway win for Red Bull. How wrong he was.

Whether four accidents in the last two races played on the mind of Hamilton, only he can say, but there appeared to be an element of caution from the 26-year-old once the five red lights disappeared.

From third on the grid Hamilton was swallowed up by the Ferraris, initially from fifth-placed Felipe Massa and then Alonso who had started fourth.

The Spaniard then swiftly attacked his team-mate to claim third, and so began his pursuit of the Red Bulls.

As for Hamilton, there were flashes of inspiration after changing tyres, but it was another of his failings in being unable to look after his rubber that ultimately led to him not keeping pace with the leaders.

After setting the fastest laps on 26 and 27 following his second stop, he was told to look after his tyres, in particular the rears, only to respond he could not go any slower.

Hamilton promptly set another fastest lap on 28, but after that he dropped away like a stone falling off a cliff.

Out in front, Alonso briefly raised the hopes of his Spanish fans when he passed Webber for second after enabling his DRS into 12 on lap 21.

At that stage there was the possibility he could push Vettel for the win, only for Webber to reclaim second spot as the second round of stops unfolded.

Ferrari hit back in round three with the double world champion leap-frogging Webber to reclaim, and ultimately hold onto, second.

As for Vettel, he was never troubled, and there is a real danger of his championship finishing exceptionally early, with a number of records potentially falling en route too.

Behind the leading quartet, Massa grabbed fifth ahead of Button, who lost sixth spot off the line to Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg, only to reclaim it several laps later with a fine move into turn two.

Rosberg came home seventh ahead of Jaime Alguersuari in his Toro Rosso, Force India’s Adrian Sutil and Renault’s Nick Heidfeld, with Paul di Resta 14th in his Force India in a race in which all 24 cars finished.

Afterwards, a disappointed Hamilton almost admitted that he believed this year’s world title fight was almost over after seeing Vettel cruise to yet another victory.

Hamilton’s demeanour was startlingly downbeat, to such an extent he even declared he is far from looking forward to the British Grand Prix in a fortnight’s time for fear of performing worse.

When asked to assess the current driver standings, Hamilton replied: “It’s finished really.

“In the sense of the championship it’s almost over already.”

Hamilton’s mood failed to lighten when it came to assessing his home race at Silverstone.

“I’m not looking forward to it, I’m really not looking forward to it,” added Hamilton.

“When you go to Silverstone the desire to win is even greater because it is your home race, and the fans are spectacular. But we’re not fast enough, and with the regulations changing I personally think we’re going to make another step backwards.”

That regulation change sees a ban on off-throttle blown diffusers, a system that uses exhaust gases to increase downforce and so aid performance.

The hope of many is Red Bull will be greatly affected, although it is more likely they will be no worse off than anybody else.

Button, so euphoric after his win in Canada a fortnight ago, has called on McLaren to speed up the rate of development if the season is to avoid falling totally flat.

“We need some upgrades for Silverstone otherwise we’re not going to be fighting the Ferraris and Red Bulls, which will be a shame at my home grand prix,” he said.

“At the moment Silverstone is not going to be a better circuit for us, so we need the upgrades to really challenge the cars in front.

“We can take some risks with some new parts, and hopefully we’ll have that when we get there.”