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Vettel remaining optimistic about title chances

20:00, 27 Sep 2018

byBobby Vincent

Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel is 40 points behind Lewis Hamilton in the title race but the German is trying to remain positive in his bid to get his fifth world championship crown.

Hamilton has been on literal fire recently, meaning Vettel will have to notch his game up to meet Hamilton's insane level.

However, the Ferrari driver remains positive despite the gap as he prepares for a fightback in Sochi this weekend.

"Obviously we expect to do well as we are one of the top three teams," Vettel said. "But I don't have a clear idea of what will happen. After tomorrow we'll see how the other cars work and how we feel with ours.

"We are some points behind in the championship and we need to catch up to make sure we are there; that's our target. The best way to do it is to finish ahead.

"That's what we generally try to do, so our plan doesn't really change from race to race. We try to give everything we have and I still believe we have a chance to win.

"We always have a look at what we did over the weekend and certainly after qualifying in Singapore we didn't get the best out of our package, but we tried everything during the race.

"I think we had a good start there and then we tried to use all the opportunities we had, but it didn't work well enough; we didn't perform the best way and the others were faster than us. So, we need to give credit to the others.

"Some races didn't go the way we wanted to, but all of us are very motivated; the guys in the team have been nice to me - and they meant it - and this really helps me to overcome these races. I get all my energy from outside, thanks to our fans and supporters. It's great to receive positivism and support from all of them."