Vettel acknowledges Hamilton was the "better one of us two"

Almost as soon as the race concluded, Sebastian Vettel ran over to Lewis Hamilton. The pair spoke for about a minute as Vettel congratulated his rival on winning his fifth World Championship. In an interview with reporters after, the German gave an insight into what he told Hamilton.

"I congratulated him. He drove superb all year and was the better one of us two," Vettel explained.

"Number five is something incredible. I congratulated him, asked him to keep pushing next year, and we'll fight him again."

There's no doubt Vettel and Ferrari will work hard during the winter in an attempt to beat Hamilton. But with the way it's looking, this time in two years we could well be talking about Hamilton equalling Michael Schumacher.

He went on to admit the team just have to accept the result, suck it up and move on.

"We need to stand there, accept it and say congratulations. I would have loved to hang in there a little longer, but it wasn't the case."

With two races left, Hamilton may well go out to repay some of the favours his wingman Valtteri Bottas gave him. And just maybe, something similar will happen with Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen as the Finn's time in Red comes to a conclusion. After all, the two Finns are still fighting for third place!