The youngest Ferrari race driver since 1961 proved he has what it takes to handle the weight of expectation that comes with driving for the sport's most successful and glamorous team.
The Mercedes driver's 55th career win was hard-fought and tense, however, with Ferrari's Vettel seizing the lead at the start and in the hunt all the way to the finish as the tyre strategies played out.
Mercedes' British driver Lewis Hamilton won the Brazilian Grand Prix at the Interlagos Circuit in Sao Paulo on Sunday to keep the Formula One Championship alive with one race left this season.
Hamilton said he would still be "incredibly proud" to pull level with "an icon like Michael" and seven was way beyond his wildest dreams, but numbers and titles maybe meant more to those on the outside.
The shocked 21-year-old rookie was unhurt in the incident between turns two and three but Williams said the chassis would have to be replaced, sidelining the Briton until Saturday's final session before qualifying. Former world champions Williams are already facing plenty of problems with an uncompetitive car that is some way off their rivals' pace.
Sebastian Vettel has never been one for social media or had much time for esports but even the four-times world champion has shifted his stance, however slightly, under Formula One's coronavirus lockdown. Although the 32-year-old Ferrari driver is still not remotely tempted by Twitter or Instagram, he has acquired a gaming rig. Just how much the German uses it remains to be seen.
Lewis Hamilton bared body and soul on Sunday after stripping down to his waist on the podium following his victory in the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Ricciardo, in blistering form since Thursday practice around the streets of the tiny Mediterranean principality, made sure of the top slot for his team's 250th race start with a quickest lap of one minute 10.810 seconds.
It was Hamilton's third victory of the season and also his third in a row at the sun-bathed but windswept Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
Sebastian Vettel's Formula One title bid could suffer a further setback after a bizarre post-race incident at the Malaysian Grand Prix on Sunday.
Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton took the first Monaco Grand Prix pole position of his career on Saturday to deny Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg a hat-trick.
Ferrari's Charles Leclerc held off Lewis Hamilton to win his first Formula One race on Sunday in the Belgian Formula One Grand Prix.
Ferrari title rival Sebastian Vettel qualified only ninth.
Lewis Hamilton feels he faces "pretty impossible odds" going into Formula One's Abu Dhabi title-decider while Mercedes team mate and rival Nico Rosberg says he will treat Sunday's race like any other. Both are being disingenuous, of course. Hamilton knows he still has a real chance and Rosberg is well aware just how much is at stake. While Rosberg is the favourite to win the 'Duel in the Desert', needing only to finish on the Yas Marina podium to become Germany's third world champion after Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel, he will still be on tenterhooks.
Sebastian Vettel made full use of the virtual safety car to sneak in front of Lewis Hamilton midway the race before the German held off the frustrated Briton to win the season-opening Australian Grand Prix on Sunday.
Red Bull's Dutch 20-year-old Max Verstappen took the chequered flag in second place with Kimi Raikkonen completing the podium for Ferrari and Australian Daniel Ricciardo finishing fourth for Red Bull.
Formula One leader Lewis Hamilton made the most of the changeable conditions to seize pole position for the Belgian Grand Prix ahead of Ferrari title rival Sebastian Vettel on Saturday.
Formula One leader Lewis Hamilton put Mercedes on pole position for their 200th race at the German Grand Prix on Saturday while engine problems dashed Ferrari's hopes.
The Finn lapped the six-km Baku street circuit in one minute, 40.495 seconds, just 0.059 seconds faster than team mate and championship leader Lewis Hamilton.
Toro Rosso's Carlos Sainz fears he and some other Formula One drivers have had to lose so much weight before the season starts, to compensate for heavier cars, that they risk compromising their health.
Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton crashed into the tyre wall but still stayed top of the timesheets after a rain-lashed Canadian Grand Prix practice on Friday.
Sunday's Chinese Grand Prix will be the 1,000th race of the Formula One world championship since the first at Silverstone in 1950.
'It was probably one of the most difficult decisions to take in my career so far. But I thought that it was time for me to take on a fresh and new challenge'
Vettel will be sharing Ferrari testing duties with the 20-year-old at Bahrain's Sakhir circuit next week after the second grand prix of the season.
Vettel, who won from pole position last year in Canada to revive Ferrari's title hopes, will be hoping for the same on Sunday with world championship leader Hamilton, chasing a record equalling seventh win in Montreal, starting alongside him.
Vettel, 17 points behind Hamilton after a commanding win in Belgium last Sunday, has previously triumphed at Monza with Toro Rosso and Red Bull and will fancy his chances of the hat-trick at the super-fast track outside Milan.
Lewis Hamilton won the Japanese Grand Prix on Sunday to equal the late Ayrton Senna's tally of 41 Formula One victories and move 48 points clear of Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg with five races remaining.
Ferrari were the fastest in pre-season testing, raising suspicions that their new SF70H car has closed the chasm between Mercedes and the rest.
Lewis Hamilton's Formula One rivals should beware the backlash because the four-times world champion's dip in form will not last long, his former Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg has warned.
Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton took pole position for the French Grand Prix on Saturday with Mercedes team mate Valtteri Bottas alongside him on the front row.
Sebastian Vettel trimmed Lewis Hamilton's Formula One lead to 17 points with eight races remaining.
Nico Rosberg had his Formula One world championship lead over Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton cut to one point after the German was demoted from second to third place in the British Grand Prix on Sunday.
Five-times Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton led a Mercedes front-row lockout with a blistering pole position at the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Saturday.
Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton will start the Chinese Formula One Grand Prix from pole position after setting the fastest time in qualifying on Saturday.
The Shanghai weather all but wiped out the first two practice sessions for the Chinese Formula One Grand Prix on Friday with poor visibility in the city forcing the grounding of the medical support helicopter.
Ferrari made a strong start to the first day of Formula One testing, on Monday, with four-times world champion Sebastian Vettel top of the timesheets at lunchtime with 72 laps completed.
History suggests that when drivers are fighting for race wins and championships, and enjoy equal status in the same competitive cars, then real friendship is often the first casualty.
Lewis Hamilton's world championship defence got off to a flying start on Sunday with a crushing victory for Mercedes in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix as Formula One rivals succumbed to a farcical rash of reliability problems.
Formula One starts a new season in Australia on March 15 with a number of changes to the rules and regulations, as well as new faces in the paddock. Check out what's different for 2015.
Lewis Hamilton took a big step towards clinching his fifth Formula One title after putting his Mercedes on pole position at the U.S. Grand Prix on Saturday with Ferrari rival Sebastian Vettel starting fifth.
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