Jun.26 (GMM) Two of Sebastian Vettel's key rivals on Sunday wrote off their chances of chasing down the runaway championship leader in 2011.

By winning on the streets of Valencia, German Vettel pulled out a 77 point lead over his Red Bull teammate Mark Webber, setting a record for the first ever F1 driver to stand on the top two steps of the podium in the first eight races of a season.

"It's finished really, in the sense of the championship it's almost over already," conceded Lewis Hamilton, fourth in the standings behind his McLaren teammate Jenson Button.

And Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, a further 10 points behind Hamilton and a whopping 99 points behind Vettel despite finishing second on Sunday, admitted: "The championship is not in our calculations.

"If anyone thinks we can win the championship being eight tenths behind (Red Bull), they don't understand formula one."

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