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Question: Sebastian, another win. You described it on the team radio as better than anything you could imagine. Why do you rate this win so highly?
Sebastian Vettel: Yeah, I mean maybe from the outside I don’t know how much there was happening in the Grand Prix. But maybe from the outside. At least for myself it looked like a boring race but I tell you I enjoy it so much when it is between you and the car every single lap. Of course, I had some pressure from behind at various times as the strategy was a little bit different from Mark and Fernando. Sometimes they were pitting earlier, sometimes later. Even though I had a gap before the stop I came out of the garage and still they were quite close again. Pushing hard but judging the tyres, trying to imagine what the end of the stint could be like, trying to foresee the strategy. For some reason I enjoy this track. Last year I had a very smooth weekend and again this year from the beginning to the end. Fantastic. The team has done a phenomenal job preparing the car. Even though we come here every year and we say this might be tricky as this track is maybe not made for us 100 per cent, with no real fast corners, but we manage to put everything together and faultless this weekend. I am very happy with the result.
Question: Sebastian, it seems the one man who is not taking risks at the moment is yourself. You are 77 points clear at the top of the championship. Could you start to take things a little easier now as we approach the half-way stage?
Sebastian Vettel: Not really. I don’t look at the gap. It is a long season. We have had a phenomenal start to the season and to continue that way is our target. But we have to go step-by-step and take every single race as it comes. Surely we don’t have to win by taking too much risks but the target is to win races. It feels wonderful as I say today and we try always to achieve our optimum. If we have a chance to win then we have to take it. If the day comes and we might struggle and not be competitive enough and the car is only maybe good enough for third then we have to finish third and not seventh. It is still a long way. At the moment we all enjoy. It is incredible the achievement and the step the team has made in the last two-and-a-half years, every single department has got so much more professional, the reaction to mistakes. The amount of things we learn and the step we make forward is incredible. We have to keep doing what we do and stay hungry, wanting to win races and wanting to become better and better every time.
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Formula 1: Sebastian Vettel Strolls to European Grand Prix Victory
Formula 1: European Grand Prix - Race Results
Question: Sebastian, your second pole to flag here. You seem to have been on top ever since Friday afternoon really.
Sebastian Vettel: Well it is always a long weekend. I really like coming here. It is not my home grand prix but the atmosphere here is something special. It is a little bit similar to Monaco but it is more relaxed. It is not so packed, not so busy, not so crowded. But still the atmosphere is there. The grandstands are full. Fernando gets most of the support but being in the city, a little bit outside around the harbour, it is nice so all in all it is a very nice grand prix. The circuit, we always approach the grand prix and it is a bit difficult to know how it will perform as there are not too many high speed corners here and a lot of hard stops. I think we have made huge steps forward in the last two years in those type of corners but still it is not our ideal track. Nevertheless, a perfect weekend. Yesterday was the foundation and today it was a long and tough race. It was quite close always between two, one-and-a-half, two-and-half, three seconds. Not too easy to really pull away and open a gap. It is a bit unknown. How long is the stint going to be? How many laps does it mean in the next stint and then at the end on the medium tyres? It helps having that little bit of a cushion, so we always came a lap later and others came earlier and came out closer or they were closer behind me when I came out so I had to build up a gap again. Really trying to get a tenth or two every lap so, all in all, a faultless race and I enjoyed it a lot. I didn’t have a fight or nobody to race but if you race against yourself and the car and always against the guys behind, between one-and-a-half and three seconds, so I really enjoyed today.
Question: What was the tyre comparison like between the carious sets of tyres?
Sebastian Vettel: To be honest I think Mark was maybe the first of our group to change onto the hard tyre. I saw him going in the pits, exit of the last corner, and then I was asking by radio what is his pace as we all didn’t know really how quick the warm-up will be. I think, generally, the warm-up is fine but is it strong enough to beat a used set of options, and we realised he wasn’t able to do the usual step you see on new tyres because the medium tyre is probably slower. We decided to stay out and came in last of the groups. If you have a bit of a cushion you can buy yourself a bit of luxury and wait for one or two laps so in the end I think we had a very good strategy and a race without mistakes.
Question: And the fast corners of Silverstone next?
Sebastian Vettel: Yeah, I think it is something all drivers enjoy and we seemed to enjoy the last two years. I won 2009. Mark won there last year, so all in all we like the track. It is nice. It is very close to the factory and it is our home grand prix for the team so it is nice for the people as they can come to the circuit and watch our car. They see it on TV all year round but it is nice when they have the opportunity to come and visit and see us on the track performing live so looking forward to the whole week and the weekend in Silverstone with a new garage and a new pit area. That will be interesting so we will see.
Question: Sebastian, each race you increase your lead, but behind you in second place, the name changes. Who do you think is your main opponent now? Mark, Fernando or the McLaren guys?
Sebastian Vettel: Mark, Fernando, Lewis, Jenson. I think they are obviously closest. To be honest, I don’t look at the scoreboard much. I think you always need to take last year as an example. It shows we had good races last year up to a certain point where things went wrong and we lost a lot of points, not necessarily making big mistakes but losing out, losing points. If you look at Formula One and you compare it to other sports, it’s a very, very long season. We have a lot of races and there are so many things that can happen, and surely you will have some races where everything will work, but you will have races where you will struggle, where it will be difficult, where you have conditions like Canada or things not going your way. You decide to stop and then all of a sudden it starts to rain like Fernando had in Canada. It’s not necessarily mistakes but it just doesn’t go your way. The safety car comes out at the wrong moment or whatever. It can change the result completely and therefore the outcome and points. Of course our target is to be in the lead and make sure we stay there but the most important race to lead the championship is after the last one and not really before.
Question: Sebastian, are you calculating at which race you could clinch the championship?
Sebastian Vettel: No. I wasn’t good in maths. I liked maths butÉ No, it’s good to know that obviously we are in the lead, by how many points I don’t really care. People tell me often enough so I don’t need to check. Sometimes they say it differently, surprising but it happens. I think we will find out early enough when it matters, whether we are in a good position or not.
Question: Are you not a little concerned that your huge advantage from the previous races seems to be becoming a little thinner now?
Sebastian Vettel: I think we have to wait. I think every circuit is different. If you need an example, we go to Melbourne and there we were very quick. We went to Malaysia and it’s very tight. If you look at qualifying in Melbourne we were something like half a second clear. In Malaysia (he said Melbourne), two hundredths or maybe five hundredths. I don’t remember. It was very close with McLaren. That was two weeks after and no upgrades, nothing happened, so things change quickly just because of the nature of the track, so we really have to go step by step. Every race is different, every track has its own characteristics. Historically we prefer tracks with high speed corners so Silverstone coming up should be a good one for us. Now the rules change slightly. I think we’ve said many times that it’s the same for everyone, so if we are not allowed to do that any more, it’s the others as well. Yeah, I said yesterday there was a lot of talk before this race, and already the talk starts now for the next race. We will see what happens.
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