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Vettel hoping for Red Bull implosion

21:45, 27 Oct 2018

byJake Williams-Smith

Sebastian Vettel says he is hoping that the Red Bull pair of Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen get in each other's way after the team wrapped up a front row lockout at the Mexican Grand Prix.

In a must-win situation to keep his championship alive, Vettel will start from fourth on the grid behind both Red Bulls and title rival Lewis Hamilton. He needs to take victory at the remaining races to stand any chance of winning whilst Hamilton cannot score five points or more from the German's perspective.

Speaking to media immediately after qualifying, Vettel admitted that he was just beaten on pace and that he was still hopeful of the result he needed tomorrow.

"It was not a very clean flying lap. I knew I had to find at least two tenths and it didn't happen. It was very close. It was not a bad lap but it just didn't come together.

"I'm quite happy though, I think we got more or less everything out of the car. Obviously dropping back to fourth from second is not satisfying but we'll see what we can do tomorrow.

"We have good straight-line speed so we'll see what we can do into Turn One and then go from there.

"I think we probably have the best reliability so far. The Red Bulls are very fast and hard to beat but maybe they will beat themselves. It's a long race, I think it will be decided over strategy and tyres."