Hamilton "the greatest of our era" - Vettel

Sebastian Vettel has hailed Lewis Hamilton as "the greatest of our era" in the wake of the Briton winning his seventh Formula 1 world title.

Vettel was in a position to immediately pass on his congratulations to Mercedes driver Hamilton after finishing on the podium for Ferrari for the first time since the Mexican Grand Prix just over a year ago.

After claiming third in a chaotic Turkish GP, Vettel congratulated race-winner Hamilton who had just equalled Michael Schumacher's feat of seven world championships.

Asked as to his exact words, Vettel replied: "Well, I told him it’s very special for us because we witnessed history being made. I think he is the greatest of our era for sure."

As to whether Hamilton is the greatest of all time, Vettel added: "I think it’s always difficult to compare. How can you possibly compare [Juan Manuel} Fangio, Stirling Moss to our generation? You can’t.

"Maybe we would be useless because we would all be s****ing ourselves in those cars. Maybe they would be useless in our cars because they’re way too fast. Who knows? But it doesn’t matter.

"I think every era has its driver or its drivers, and Lewis is certainly the greatest of our era.

"To me, certainly emotionally, Michael will always be the greatest driver but there’s no doubt that Lewis is the greatest in terms of what he has achieved.

"He’s equalled the championships, won more races, he has a lot more pole positions so I think he’s done everything you can ask for."

Vettel then recognised Hamilton's performance in a race which at one stage he seemingly had no right to win as he trailed leader Lance Stroll in his Racing Point by 25 seconds, only to triumph by a staggering 31.6 seconds.

"I think this race is the best proof," assessed Vettel. "It was a very difficult race to stay on track and two hours long.

"Probably, if we’re honest, it wasn’t his race to win and he still won it, so I think, once again, he managed to pull something special out of that bag.

"Therefore I think he deserves everything he has achieved."

Before you go...

Hamilton's seven F1 world championship titles ranked

Why Hamilton "burst into tears" after taking seventh F1 world title

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