Vettel (Ferrari) did well to slice his way through the field and finish fourth (+37.362s) to keep his title hopes alive.

But while Raikkonen sympathises with his Ferrari colleague, he does not intend to alter his own plans to help Vettel. "I thought we had a great race auto but I didn't think it was going to be quite that great". "So I have told them what I feel is the best way to start the next race". Sure he will be good tomorrow.

"Seb (Vettel) came at me very quickly and I thought I'd have a handful", he said. I have a good feeling about it.

As the cars took to the grid, the #7 Ferrari was seen being pushed back into the garage, and even as Ferrari mechanics rushed to try and get Kimi's auto running again, it wasn't meant to be. He has Ricciardo to thank for this one; Vettel was really plowing through everyone until it was time to pass the Red Bull.

Verstappen's current Red Bull deal runs out at the end of the 2018 season, the same time as Valtteri Bottas' contract with Mercedes expires and Kimi Raikkonen's agreement with Ferrari ends.

"It's impossible to say but I'm pretty certain that I would have had a very, very good auto".

Most of the cars topped 330km/h down the straight and Verstappen's average speed on the 5.5km circuit was 206.18km/h.

Verstappen has made a passing remarkable to pay the costs of Hamilton into turn no. 4.

"He has endured so much bad luck this year - first lap incidents, breakdowns, but he has never let his head drop", Horner said. To makes things worse, Vettel was struck by Lance Stroll, tearing off the left rear side of his vehicle on the cool down lap.

The German crashed out of pole position on the opening lap of the last race in Singapore, with Hamilton capitalising from fifth to win.

Before the race Kimi Raikkonen was a strong favourite to challenge for victory, but he didn't get to turn a single lap in anger as his auto developed a problem on the grid and he was out before the race had even started.

F1 returns next week with the Japanese Grand Prix. I saw Lewis was struggling with traction, and e has more to lose in the championship so I went for it! "It wasn't intentional for either of us", the 18-year-old added.

Nico Hulkenberg finished just outside the points in 11th with Renault teammate Jolyon Palmer having a scrappy race, including two spins in close succession, the second of which was the result of contact with Kevin Magnussen, and ended up 16th. Vettel was lapping almost one second faster than Hamilton and overtook Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas, even though Bottas started fifth.