“That’s a compliment, first of all,” said Vettel. “But it’s
very different. There’s probably one race which was a bit of an exception.
“If you take Singapore (last month), the gaps we had and were able to
build up were incredible, to lap two seconds quicker than the cars behind
us.
“If you take Korea, which was more similar to Spa (Belgian GP), the gap
was something between three and six seconds for the whole race.
“If you look at 10 years ago (in Schumacher’s time), it was more like 30
to 60 seconds, which is a big difference.
“Don’t get me wrong, it’s a nice cushion to have in the car when you see
you’re three seconds down the road.
“But equally, you know if you make one stupid mistake – in Korea, for
example, a lock-up was very likely and three seconds is nothing compared to
30 or 60.”
Hamilton, believing his words had been misconstrued, latter took to Twitter to
extol Vettel’s virtues, proclaiming him to be “a great champion”
and “a human being who is funny and humble”.
Vettel was at least grateful for such comments, adding: “Obviously it’s
very nice to hear something like that, and I can only give it back. There is
respect amongst the drivers.
“Obviously there’s a lot of stuff that gets written and said, but the
most important thing is when you go up to another driver, whether you feel
respected or not, and I think that is the case.
“Lewis is one of the best drivers currently in Formula One. I have been
getting along quite well with him lately, so I can only say ‘thank you very
much’ and give it back.”
Edited by Ben Bloom