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.
Vettel is only the third driver to win three championships in a row and the ninth triple champion. The others are Argentina's Juan Manuel Fangio and Germany's Michael Schumacher. The following are some key facts about Vettel.
The crash at turn three of the Circuit de Catalunya on Wednesday morning was the first setback for the 2018 runners-up with a new SF90 car that has otherwise looked impressively quick and reliable.
The German driver seized the lead at the start from team-mate Charles Leclerc on Sunday but was soon reeled in by the 21-year-old from Monaco, who passed Vettel on the sixth lap in only his second race for Ferrari.
Formula One world championship leader Sebastian Vettel won the Bahrain Grand Prix for Ferrari on Sunday in the German's 200th race start.
The German, winner of the season's first two races, had been second before coming in for a fresh set of tyres while Hamilton won with one stop from pole position.
The writing has been on the wall for Sebastian Vettel since September 2018 when Ferrari announced Charles Leclerc as his Formula One team mate. The German, who will leave the Italian team at the end of a pandemic-hit 2020 season that has yet to start, was top dog at Maranello at the time but Leclerc was young, hungry and determined.
Ferrari's Formula One world championship leader Sebastian Vettel was handed a five-second penalty for colliding with the Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas on the opening lap of the French Grand Prix on Sunday.
Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto said the pair remain free to fight on track and if either is clearly faster than the other would be given preference.
Lewis Hamilton accused Formula One rival Sebastian Vettel of disgracing himself and deliberately driving into his car as a bitter clash between the two world championship rivals dominated Sunday's Grand Prix in Azerbaijan.
Red Bull have given "a definite no" to four-times Formula One world champion Sebastian Vettel's hopes of returning to them next year, team boss Christian Horner said on Friday. The German, who is out of contract with Ferrari at the end of the season and facing an uncertain future, had said on Thursday he would say yes to a Red Bull drive if one was offered.
Ferrari are giving Sebastian Vettel the Michael Schumacher treatment, according to the German's main title rival Lewis Hamilton.
Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel, winner of 52 races, has gone more than a year since he tasted victory at last year's Belgian race.
Hamilton, who clinched his fourth world championship in Mexico two weeks ago, started from the pitlane after crashing in qualifying but led the race after 31 of 71 laps when others pitted.
Formula One championship leader Sebastian Vettel put Ferrari on pole position for Sunday's Bahrain Grand Prix with team mate Kimi Raikkonen alongside on the front row.
Lewis Hamilton did 94 laps of Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya on the soft C2 compound in a sunny afternoon session
Ferrari's Fernando Alonso congratulated Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel on his fourth successive Formula One world title on Sunday but reserved judgement on where the German stood among the greats.
Sebastian Vettel trimmed Lewis Hamilton's Formula One lead to 17 points with eight races remaining.
Sunday's explosive Azerbaijan Grand Prix more than made up for last year's dull race in Baku, bursting the budding 'bromance' and replacing it with something much more heavyweight.
Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo won a chaotic Azerbaijan Grand Prix on Sunday, with Formula One championship leader Sebastian Vettel finishing fourth after being penalised for swerving into rival Lewis Hamilton who came home in fifth.
The German's Finnish teammate Kimi Raikkonen sealed the Ferrari front-row lockout.
Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton took pole position at the Spanish Grand Prix on Saturday in a Mercedes one-two that ended Sebastian Vettel's bid for a fourth in a row.
Sebastian Vettel's hopes of fighting champions Mercedes for victory in Sunday's Bahrain Formula One Grand Prix went up in smoke before the start when his Ferrari's engine blew on the formation lap.
Lewis Hamilton is hoping rain will come to the rescue as a Hockenheim heatwave threatens to dash Mercedes's hopes of a home German Grand Prix win on Sunday.
"The FIA will further examine the causes of the incident in order to evaluate whether further action is necessary," it announced in a statement.
Formula One champions Red Bull recognised on Saturday they were well behind rivals in pre-season testing but dismissed reports that Sebastian Vettel had "thrown a hissy fit" about the situation.
This is the German's 50th career win
"It was not a problem of the mechanics, it was our problem and we have to make sure we fix it"
Triple Formula One world champion Sebastian Vettel would be Ferrari's first choice should they ever need to replace Fernando Alonso, president Luca di Montezemolo said.
Sebastian Vettel's hopes of vaulting back into the overall Formula One world championship lead were wrecked by a first corner collision on the opening lap of the Singapore Grand Prix.
Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel won an incident-packed Singapore Formula One Grand Prix on Sunday after world champion Lewis Hamilton retired early for the first time this season and an intruder set heart rates fluttering when he strolled on to the track.
Felipe Massa might have a curb named after him at the Buddh International Circuit, but it is Sebastian Vettel who really seems to like the circuit on the outskirts of Delhi.
Thankfully for world champion Sebastian Vettel the Singapore Grand Prix is a marathon and not a sprint as the German overcame a self-perceived lack of pace in his Red Bull to claim the two-hour night race.
'The team is developing and closer together year by year so I hope that this year we get to have a lot of fun -- fun means win a lot of races and then ultimately you are fighting for the championship'
The German is 40 points adrift of Mercedes rival Lewis Hamilton with six races remaining and is running out of time to reassert himself in the battle of the four times world champions.
Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel said he would still sleep soundly despite a mistake that cost him a home German Grand Prix win at Hockenheim and the Formula One championship lead on Sunday.
Sebastian Vettel will drop three places in next week's Japanese Grand Prix as punishment for tipping championship leader Nico Rosberg into a spin at the start of Sunday's Formula One race in Malaysia.
Nico Rosberg invited Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel to attend Mercedes' Friday debrief at the Malaysian Grand Prix after a light-hearted exchange between the Formula One rivals last weekend.
Hamilton, eight points behind Vettel after 10 races, qualified 14th.
Sebastian Vettel's record run of nine consecutive race victories ended on Sunday when the quadruple world champion retired his Red Bull from the season-opening Australian Grand Prix with a reliability problem.
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