The defiance that shows Vettel isn't finished

All world champions are ruthless.

This characteristic manifests itself in many different ways - be it in a willingness to get involved in on-track scrapes, a callous lack of regard for rivals, the single-minded focus on their own ends to the exclusion of all others, or any of the myriad ways things that can get edgy in a race.

But all 33 Formula 1 world champions, to a greater or lesser extent, have this in their blood.

Earlier this season, there were legitimate questions about whether Vettel still has it in him to dig deep and do what needs to be done to be world champion again. What happened during the Russian Grand Prix proved beyond doubt that he is every bit as determined as he once was, even if he can't match upstart team-mate Charles Leclerc for speed.

How's this for being ruthless? Capitalise on a pre-race agreement to take the lead and then refuse to give it back, knowing that ignoring several explicit demands to cede the position will infuriate your team-mate behind.

Force your team to execute the order unilaterally by giving your team-mate the undercut, because they know full well that you would do everything you can to stay ahead. This was Vettel attempting to assert himself as the big dog in the team.

To do so, with his career at stake, showed he was willing to risk fermenting a toxic atmosphere inside Ferrari and perhaps even jeopardise his future given how easily it could backfire.

At its most extreme, this was Vettel bringing to a head the simmering question of if this is still his Ferrari team or Leclerc's. Vettel knew he was wrong to do this in the sporting sense, no matter how he rationalises it.

Even if he was unhappy with the start agreement before the race - and you suspect this was the case even though this is a speculative position - that doesn't justify ignoring the team instruction.

He claimed on the radio he would have passed Leclerc anyway, so that was also clearly part of his cover story. And even though Ferrari was wrong to attempt to switch Vettel and Leclerc around so early in the race, rather than getting it won and sorting it out down the line, that doesn't excuse shrugging off the instruction.

What we can be sure of was that Vettel knew what he was doing - he knew the longer he was ahead, the better the chance he could stay there.

The similarities to the 2013 Malaysian Grand Prix 'Multi 21' controversy were very obvious, but less well remembered is how Vettel reacted to it in the long term

By edging away from Leclerc in the first stint and demanding his team-mate be closer, he would be able to argue a pace advantage and the risk of Hamilton gatecrashing their switcheroo as justification not to ease off. And with Leclerc behind, and therefore vulnerable to a potential attack, he was also hoping Hamilton might get ahead and render the swap impossible anyway.

This wasn't the emotional, arrogant Vettel some have portrayed - it was cold, calculating and brutal. He knew exactly what he was doing, and why. Vettel, knowing the stakes, threw everything at trying to win the race and to hell with the consequences.

After all, winning is the only currency that matters in F1 and he's been pretty short on it over the past year or so. That's why Ferrari had to take control and give Leclerc a four-lap undercut, which also clearly angered Vettel before the MGU-K failure gave him another reason to be furious.

Suppose Vettel had somehow still been ahead after the stops and with a fully-functioning ERS system? Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto said after the race they would have switched, no problem. Vettel dodged the question, arguing it was a moot point given he was already behind and his car then failed.

But there's no way Vettel would have ceded that place except under the most enormous duress. It was naive of Ferrari to believe it could over-manage the start to this extent without the risk of a backfire.

Binotto's PR-friendly answer cannot be what he believes, because he's no idiot, and all credit to him for ensuring the situation was taken out of Vettel's hands with the strategy call that he unconvincingly argued was not about that.

Meanwhile, Leclerc sat in Ferrari's post-race media briefing alongside Binotto and Vettel, and claimed - also unconvincingly - that the trust between the drivers hadn't been lost. But in racing terms, Leclerc will probably never turn his back on Vettel again!

All of this was of Vettel's making. He knew when he was doing it that this would be the result. Ultimately, it was all for nothing because he didn't get the win, and neither did Leclerc, but he still created a maelstrom within the Ferrari team.

It will be fascinating to see how the drivers cope with it in the longer term. Thursday at Suzuka next week will be illuminating. History suggests Vettel might come out all guns blazing.

The similarities to the 2013 Malaysian Grand Prix 'Multi 21' controversy were very obvious, but less well remembered is how Vettel reacted to it in the long term. After things blew up in the few hours after the race at Sepang, where Vettel and his then Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber were allowed to race until the final pitstop and the race had, by those rules, been won by car number two - Webber (hence Multi 21 for the car order) - there was some time to think.

We then headed to the Chinese Grand Prix three weeks later and, on the Thursday, far from being contrite, Vettel doubled down on what he did with astonishing bravado, verve and - that word again - ruthlessness. In among saying the right things, he made clear that his desire to win - and his pace advantage over Webber - overrode the team order.

How Leclerc responds to this potential civil war from the moral high ground of Sochi could prove career-defining

"I apologised to the team because it was the last thing I want as a team member, which is what I am and how I feel," he said in China. "I am one of the guys - you might say I am more or less important, but I feel more or less on the same level - and as a team member, I didn't obey the team's order, which as I said was not my intention. My intention if you look at it as a racing driver is to win the race, so I don't apologise for winning the race."

You can imagine Vettel saying something similar had he won at Sochi! Clearly, his conduct was wrong but it was also fantastic to see this not-so-old warhorse digging deep.

Vettel has had some tough times of late, he's underperformed against expectations, made too many mistakes and looks like he has lost de facto leadership of the team to Leclerc.

Yet here he is, a great champion, using every trick in the book to get a foothold. That's what made it wonderful to see.

He's not just there to pick up a few more paycheques.

Vettel did what he felt he needed to do to keep himself in the game and hang the consequences. The sheer, to-hell-with-you audacity of it was breathtaking - just what you'd expect to see from a champion.

Vettel knows the score.

He's an ageing driver, albeit not that old considering he's in his 12th season after starting young, shakily facing up to the challenge of the new generation of Leclerc and Verstappen.

Every empire crumbles, and so many great drivers have faced this battle eventually because time cannot be defeated. Even the great Lewis Hamilton, eventually, will be in the same position unless he decides to pack up before the young guns snapping at his heels can catch up with him.

The drive, the ruthlessness of these great drivers means they are more likely to go on too long, though, rather than opting for an exit at the top of their game.

These generational battles are a joy to behold but also can be rare.

Ayrton Senna versus Alain Prost is the most famous, but we've also been denied some great ones in the past by death and injury.

Leclerc and Vettel will continue to be team-mates but any suspicions the younger man will have had about Vettel's intentions will have been obliterated.

As for Leclerc, he's not above a ruthless trick and showed on the outlap of the shambolic final Q3 runs at Monza that he was happy to use any excuse to place himself behind Vettel on the track even though the instruction was that he should be ahead.

That was similar to Vettel at Sochi, but just heavily watered down.

How Leclerc responds to this potential civil war from the moral high ground of Sochi could prove career-defining.

But if Vettel is on a journey to the end of the road, he proved at Sochi that he's only going to go there kicking and screaming and trying everything he can to hang on despite Leclerc's inevitable, ultimate triumph.

You have to respect that from one of the most likeable drivers in F1 out of the car, even if you might not like the way he has gone about it once the helmet is on.