Vettel leaving a fifth title behind him

NESTLED in the royal park just outside of Milan you’ll find Monza, the temple of speed.

It’s famous for its long straights and heavy breaking, for the parabolica, for curva grande, for the Lesmos, but mostly for the tifosi. Fanatics clad in red, urging on the prancing horse from the grandstands.

The cheer that erupted when Ferrari took the top two positions in qualifying on Saturday afternoon was loud enough to briefly drown out the sound of the thousand horsepower engines.

The tifosi sensed that Sunday was going to be a big day for the Scuderia. The day when Sebastian Vettel struck a decisive blow in the battle for the world championship title.

Instead they were left sorely disappointed as Vettel made his fourth major blunder of the season. Instead of moving to within less than ten points of Lewis Hamilton in the championship he finds himself thirty points behind. The championship is now, to all intents and purposes, out of his hands.

The boos which rang out for Hamilton as he took the top step on the podium after the race were probably the result of the tifosi’s displaced anger with Vettel. It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that the German is throwing the title away.

He left wins behind him at both Baku and Hockenheim and a chunk of points at Paul Ricard, but last Sunday’s mistake was the most frustrating of the lot. He didn’t need to fight so hard in the first lap against Hamilton, he could have let him go and got him again later.

But, no, the red mist descended and much like last year he’s leaving a fifth title behind him. With the fastest car on the grid at his disposal, Vettel has nobody but himself to blame for his current situation.