Red Bull rivals appear beaten already

McLaren and Ferrari appeared ready to write off their Formula One title hopes after Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel won the European Grand Prix for his sixth victory in eight races this season.

The defending F1 champion stretched his commanding overall advantage to 77 points over McLaren's Jenson Button and teammate Mark Webber, who finished third Sunday on Valencia's street circuit.

Vettel has won eight of the last 10 races stretching into last season, with Red Bull dominating qualifying in that time by starting first in 23 of 27 races.

''It's finished really, in the sense of the championship it's almost over already,'' McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton said after placing fourth. The British driver is fourth overall, 89 points behind Vettel.

Hamilton, who has been under criticism lately, backtracked over his comments a day later by insisting that he had not given up on the season yet.

Fernando Alonso sounded like a driver who had.

Ferrari is firmly planted behind the leaders despite continued improvement that saw the two-time world champion finish as runner-up for the second time in three races.

''The championship is not in our calculations, it's not in our hands,'' the Spaniard said. ''We have to go race by race and wait for some mistakes from Red Bull. The points difference is a lot so it's not in our hands.

''If anyone thinks we can win the championship being eight-tenths behind (Red Bull) they don't understand Formula One.''

Alonso blamed poor winter development for putting Ferrari one month behind coming into the new season. Alonso is 10 points behind Hamilton who, alongside Button, is the only other race winner this season.

''I don't look at the (points) gap, it's a long season,'' said Vettel, who finished second in the two races he didn't win. ''We've had a phenomenal season and we have to continue that way, that's our target. The target is still to win races.

''I don't look at the scoreboard much - you always need to take last year as an example,'' said Vettel, who needed victories in the last two races to clinch his first F1 title despite Red Bull's dominance.

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said Vettel's confidence was ''sky high.''

''At the end of the day he's a perfectionist. It pushes everybody,'' Horner said. ''He wants to win. He's very focused.''

Hamilton's skepticism wasn't helped by his McLaren's performance, which both its drivers agreed had not improved since Button's victory in Montreal.

''It seems as if we've taken a step backward in terms of performance,'' said 2008 F1 champion Hamilton, who complained of a lack of downforce. ''I think in the next race we'll really struggle. I'm not looking forward to it, I'm really not looking forward to it.''

Button called on McLaren to provide something extra for the July 10 British GP at Silverstone, where the high speed corners favor Red Bull.

''New parts are coming but we need to take some risks,'' said Button, who knows the payoff from a dominating start as the British driver won six of the first seven races in 2009 on his way to the title.

Neither McLaren or Ferrari will be pleased with Pirelli's decision to outfit cars with hard and soft tires at Silverstone, either. The hard compound should favor Red Bull at a circuit where it is already the car to beat, while both rivals have complained of problems adapting their set-up to the harder compound.