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Victory For Vettel In Japanese Grand Prix |
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Thursday, 08 October 2009 22:55 |
Sebastian Vettel secured his third - and the team’s fourth - F1 victory of the season in Suzuka today.
Having yesterday started from pole position and topping the timesheets in each of the Qualifying sessions, Seb drove a faultless race from his defence of the first corner to overcoming a Safety Car session to the final few free-racing laps.
It means he is now 16.5 points behind the current drivers’ championship leader Jenson Button with just two races left of the season.
But it was though a bitter sweet day for the team. While Seb was spraying the champagne, Mark Webber was left wondering what might have been. He crashed in Saturday practice and was unable to take part in the subsequent Qualifying, so had to start the race from the pitlane. He then had mechanical problems and was forced back into the pits three times in the first five laps, effectively ending any chances of scoring points.
Toro Rosso had a similarly torrid time. Sébastien Buemi’s afternoon was cut short on lap 11 following problems with his clutch and Jaime Alguersuari who had driven well up to then, crashed badly on lap 45 of the 53-lap race. Though he was taken off in an ambulance, he suffered no major injuries.
The race ends an Asian Adventure for the team which has included four Running Showcar events and the two Formula One weekends, one of which (Singapore) was a night race.
But the win in Japan sets up an exciting end to the 2009 campaign and, though the odds might be against us, Sebastian, Mark and the team and the team are still up for the fight.
Car 15 SEBASTIAN VETTEL, Finish Position: 1st, Start Position: 1st
“What a race! We already had pole position and strategy-wise we were the favourites, but, you know – first of all you have to do the start! We were pretty confident that we could defend our position, as we’ve had good starts in the past, but it was closer than I thought it would be! Going into Turn 1, I suddenly saw a silver arrow on my left-hand side, but I had the inside line so it was my advantage. After that I put my head down and tried to push with every single lap. The car was fantastic and I was able to create a gap quite quickly. We were two laps longer than Lewis (Hamilton) and a lap longer than Jarno (Trulli) in the first stint, so it all worked out and I was pretty much in control of the race. After we fitted the soft tyres for the last stint, I wanted to have a little bit of fun. I did one very quick lap (I think a 32.5), but then my engineer came on the radio and said ‘watch your tyres, there might be a safety car or something’ and two laps later there was the safety car! It’s not what you want when you’re in the lead, but I was still taking care of my tyres and had a good restart. I had a bit of a cushion with Grosjean behind me and then three
or four laps to build a gap again that was enough to win the race. Finally, we made it! Fantastic. I was screaming with happiness on the radio at the end of the race. The last couple of races have been a bit up and down, sometimes we had pace and sometimes not, but finally we made it. It’s good to be back in first position on Sunday. A huge thanks to all the team and everyone at Red Bull for this.”
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