After officially losing out on yet another drivers' championship, Sebastian Vettel was quick to congratulate his rival Lewis Hamilton for winning his fifth championship, as the German preached that Ferrari need to accept defeat and congratulate the winner.
Vettel had a good race himself, finishing second after starting from fourth, but he needed to win and Hamilton to finish below seventh to keep the title scrap alive. Neither of those things happened, with Hamilton finishing fourth and Vettel finishing behind race-winner Max Verstappen.
Speaking to David Coulthard on the grid after the race, Vettel showed sportsmanship by openly accepting defeat and congratulating the winner.
"Obviously not an easy day," he admitted.
"But well deserved, congrats to Lewis and his team, they did a superb job all year
"We need to stand here and accept that, and say congratulations. We would have loved to hang in there a little bit longer but it wasn't the case."
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