Ross Brawn feels Sebastian Vettel’s victory at the British Grand Prix last weekend was a significant moment in the 2018 season, even if it cannot be seen as a turning point for the championship with so many races still to come.
With Lewis Hamilton’s race being compromised early after third corner contact with Kimi Räikkönen, Vettel was able to give Scuderia Ferrari their fourth victory of the season, with a late race pass on Valtteri Bottas ensuring the fifth-first triumph of his career, which puts him equal with the number of race wins by Alain Prost.
Formula 1 Sporting Director Brawn says Ferrari winning at a track that has traditionally been a dominant track for the Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport team bodes well for the rest of the season, both for the Italian team and for the championship in general.
“This was Sebastian’s fifty-first Formula 1 win, putting him joint third with Alain Prost on the list of most successful drivers in F1,” Brawn is quoted as saying by Crash.net.
“It cannot be seen as a turning point in the championship, given that his eight-point lead is small when there’s still half a season to go, but it was definitely a significant result, both technically and psychologically, as we head toward the Ferrari man’s home race in Germany.
“Hamilton’s pace throughout was prodigious and who knows what would have happened if Vettel and Bottas hadn’t got past him at the start. What is certain is that a race that should have seen him retake the championship lead from Vettel turned into a damage limitation exercise.”
The result extended Vettel’s advantage in the Drivers’ Championship to eight points after the first ten races ahead of Hamilton, while Ferrari now hold a twenty-point advantage over Mercedes heading to next weekend’s German Grand Prix.
