4-time world champion Sebastian Vettel who is racing for the Aston Martin Cognizant team this weekend in Austria has turned 34 today. The German celebrates his birthday during a race weekend where he and his team are hoping to get some points. Statistically, Vettel is the third most successful driver in the history of the sport with 53 race wins and even on the current grid is only dwarfed by the staggering achievements of Lewis Hamilton who has been world champion 6 of the last 7 years. As the feisty German becomes one of the senior statesmen of the sport, we take a look at his best five performances.
In recent years, especially his last two years at Ferrari have thrown a shade against the legacy of Sebastian Vettel. But his recent performances in the mid-field trotting Aston Martin have proven that there is a lot of skill on tap. His performance at the recently concluded Azerbaijan GP particularly showed why he is considered amongst the greatest ever Formula One has witnessed. His valiant drive propelled him from P11 to P2 with him even having a shot at victory.
9 years before Baku, when Vettel was challenging for his world title in 2012, the German put out a mega drive starting from the pit lane avoiding many crashes in what was a chaotic race to close out his 3rd world title. At the time, particularly in 2012, Fernando Alonso had mounted a monstrous challenge in a Ferrari that was clearly superior so there were question marks over Vettel's race craft which he put to bed with this performance.
In all his years at Ferrari, Mercedes usually had the better car, but not in 2018. By the time the season had moved to Great Britain at Silverstone, Lewis Hamilton's home race, Ferrari had a great car, but the onus was on Vettel to put in a performance that could help the Scuderia topple the Silver Arrows. While things didn't work out according to plan over the course of the season, Vettel started from pole and generally dominated the race, in front of Hamilton's home crowd, demonstrating that Ferrari had its moments in its fight against the Mercedes.
When Vettel had joined Ferrari in 2015, he was replacing Fernando Alonso and was taking on a highly dominant Mercedes. Nobody believed that anyone, even the mighty prancing horse could actually beat the Germans who had mastered the new engine regulations. But within one race of joining the team he dreamed of being a part of since he was a kid, Vettel, defeated the Mercedes duo thanks to the safety car and a strategic error by the Mercedes team. Despite the faster car, Hamilton and Rosberg didn't have an answer to Vettel's pace reminding everyone why and how he had flown away to 4 world titles before anyone else in history.
The 2008 Italian GP marked the arrival of a future world champion and an unexpected race win. In a chaotic rainy race, Vettel in the junior Red Bull team of Torro Rosso won after qualifying on p2 because of a wet qualifying session, showcasing brilliant car control in treacherous conditions. It marked the arrival of a superstar.
