According to the Tuscan newspaper Il Tirreno, the Nurburgring last Sunday proved that “The world championship is not over.”<\/p>\n
France’s L’Equipe agreed that, with the championship leader Sebastian Vettel uncharacteristically off the front row and podium, Germany was a “cold shower” for the Red Bull driver.<\/p>\n
Lewis Hamilton surprised himself with victory in a McLaren well-suited to the unseasonably cold conditions, but he remains 82 points behind Vettel with just nine races to run.<\/p>\n
And the Briton expects the 23-year-old to bounce back.<\/p>\n
“This was a small glitch over a long period.\u00a0 I have no doubts he (Vettel) will have some interesting comments made about him but he will be back, no doubt,” said Hamilton.<\/p>\n
Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso has scored more points than any other rival in the past three grands prix, but he too is cautious about rating his chances of chasing down the leader.<\/p>\n
“We need some help from Red Bull,” said the Spaniard.\u00a0 “If they keep finishing the races, even third or fourth, it’s enough for them.”<\/p>\n
McLaren team boss Martin Whitmarsh agrees that Vettel’s chasers need to keep the pressure on because the world champion “made a couple of mistakes” in Germany.<\/p>\n
But he, as well as his Ferrari counterpart Stefano Domenicali, stop short of being confident.<\/p>\n
“I don’t think we can say that this victory shows we are on a roll,” said Whitmarsh, whilst Domenicali noted: “I don’t forget that last year in Hungary we were one second off the pace of Red Bull.”<\/p>\n
One theory on the recent change in form is that, with Jenson Button’s 2009 feats in mind, Vettel has calculated that a low-risk strategy will still deliver him the title.<\/p>\n
It’s also possible that he and Red Bull have begun to struggle.<\/p>\n
“I tend to think Seb is young enough to absorb the hit of last weekend and not tighten up, but we shall see,” wrote David Coulthard in his telegraph column.<\/p>\n
Another former McLaren driver John Watson insists that Vettel is far enough ahead to relax.<\/p>\n
“The only thing that can have a bearing would be something that would stop Vettel from competing in the next three or four races and that’s very unlikely,” he told the Guardian.<\/p>\n
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