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Question: Sebastian, no World Championship celebrations here but another pole, another victory but not by the large margin that at one stage looked likely?
Sebastian Vettel: Yeah, first of all I am very, very pleased with the result. The car was fantastic all the way through. I think when we had to push we could pull away quite easily and pull a gap, which helped us. The safety car came out. It didn’t really fit to our plan as we had a big gap. I think about 30 seconds and 30 laps to go but, nevertheless, I had a very good restart. I was a bit lucky there were some backmarkers between me and Jenson and I was able to get back into the rhythm straight away, pull a huge gap and I was quite happy as towards the end with the traffic it is quite busy around here. There isn’t much space and if you catch the traffic on the wrong place on the circuit you lose quite some time. In the last lap I faced five cars, quite a large group, but there was plenty of room. Not that big margin when I crossed the line but I was in control when Jenson was going into the last lap. All in all fantastic result. I really love the track. I love the challenge. It is one of the longest races, I think it is the longest so great. The car was fantastic. Engine-wise everything was great. Renault, again, did a very good job so we were in a comfortable position for most of the race which is pretty handy around here as it is quite a big challenge to put the sectors together, not only in qualifying but also the race so, as I said, the pace was good and I am very pleased. For the Championship, it looks like we have another chance at the next race.
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Formula 1: Sebastian Vettel Cruises to Singapore Win
Formula 1: Singapore Grand Prix - Race Results
Question: Seb, I think there might have been a few tears on the podium. Was that for your first win here, was that a sigh of relief that two hours had finally finished or was it the emotion of another victory that was as special as the first this season.
Sebastian Vettel: I think it was a bit of all that and I had something in my eye. As I said I really like this track especially after last year where it was a tough fight to the end with Fernando. It was all the way from start to finish shadowing him last year. I felt I could have gone a little bit quicker. It was a nice battle and I finished second so this year it was great to come back and get the job done. We all agree that this is one of the toughest challenges we face all year. It is getting quite hot inside the car. The race is quite long. The humidity makes us sweat a lot and work hard which is good so it is nice when you cross the line knowing you have done your best and achieved your optimum. I think we can be very proud of ourselves again. A fantastic race from start to finish. Smooth pit-stops and in the heat we once again kept our heads cool. A perfect day at the office I would say.
Question: Sebastian, a phenomenal start and you already had two-and-a-half seconds at the end of the first lap. It was just extraordinary.
Sebastian Vettel: Yeah, the car was amazing. The start was good. We were on the clean side and that’s why Mark lost out. I saw immediately that Jenson got away a bit better than me but I knew it should be fine down to turn one. Then I was just trying to push as hard as I could in the beginning, trying to open a gap. Trying to use the momentum. Trying to find the rhythm as quickly as I can to use this advantage that I have with the clear track ahead. I was surprised myself that I was able to pull away that much. I think after a couple of laps I already had a 10-seconds gap. Then it puts us in a very comfortable position as we can control the stint from there, control the tyres. Same into the second stint and quite a big gap again. Safety car didn’t make our lives easier especially at the end. All in all the car was great from start to finish and I was able to pull away. Had a little bit of help from the backmarkers. But had nice smooth race at the front. I didn’t have to face any cars. I used DRS only if I had to pass the lapped cars. We were in a luxury position today. The speed was phenomenal. The car I had, every time I had to push and I wanted to push there was so much more lap time in it. I think we were going at stages more than a second quicker than the cars behind which makes it a lot of fun. You want to push harder and harder as once you really get sucked into this rhythm on this track, yeah. It is hard to pace yourself. You know that you have to look after the tyres et cetera so the stop in the end we didn’t have to pit but decided to do so in case of another safety car where we would be more vulnerable on a used or scrubbed set in the end. We did the right calls. At the end with quite a lot of traffic, if you take some time and wait until there really opens a gap to avoid any misunderstanding you might sacrifice a couple of second easily. That allowed Jenson to come closer plus the fact that he felt quite comfortable at the end of the race but as I said not much we could have done better tonight so all in all it is great. It means a lot to me as I really like this track. It is one of the hardest challenges we face all year so to come out of that a winner is a great result for us.
Question: Sebastian, that was the first time that you led from start to finish. Does that give you some kind of perfection when you lead every lap. Also, it didn’t take long to beat Kimi (Raikkonen) in terms of victories; will you overtake Mika (Hakkinen) as quickly? He’s the next one.
Sebastian Vettel: I don’t know how many wins Kimi has and Mika?
Question: Eighteen for Kimi and 20 for Mika.
Sebastian Vettel: I didn’t know that other races we had… obviously it depends on when you pit, when the others pit but good to hear (that’s it’s the first time that I had led from lights to flag.) At the end of the race, I’m always a bit tempted to go for fastest lap. I get told off, ‘don’t even dare to think about it.’ Jenson said I had no chance, I’m not sure, but yeah, I think the main thing is to win the race. It doesn’t matter where you start or where you have been in between or on your journey. As you finish first, there are a lot of reasons to be happy. Most of the time, it’s confirmation that you did a better job than the rest so I’m very pleased with that. For the Finns, it’s not really my objective but it’s incredible news in a way, because obviously everyone knows drivers like Kimi and Mika, especially in Finland I guess. Within the German drivers, the German record is far, far away. Still a long way to go but I’m very happy at the moment. The team is doing a great job, I’m feeling very comfortable with the team, with the car. Everything seems to work and we are on top of our game. I think there is no secret. It’s just that everyone is able to rely on the other one and together we are pulling in the same direction, in one direction. I think it’s very enjoyable at the moment. The car is obviously fantastic and most of the time we have a good Sunday afternoon or Sunday evenings.
Question: Sebastian, do you feel capable of scoring one point in the next five races, because if you do so you will be champion?
Sebastian Vettel: I feel capable but I still have to do it. Obviously with the races that we’ve had so far, it should not be a big problem but it’s over when it’s over and not before. Statistically the chances are on our side but generally in sports there have been a lot of stories written, and this one also has to wait to be closed first.
Question: Sebastian, two hours of racing and you were leading from start to finish. Did you think of anything else during the race, maybe the championship?
Sebastian Vettel: Not really. I did make it quite clear before the race that it’s not important to know where the other people were. Obviously I was given the gaps to Jenson who was in second and then the race order at the end, so crossing the line, I didn’t know whether it might be enough or not. A little bit similar to Abu Dhabi. I didn’t know in which position people had to finish. For the next one, I’m obviously smart enough to work it out myself. We will see. To us, today, it didn’t really matter. Our target was to win. We felt like we had it in ourselves, in the car so it’s good to achieve that and for the rest, we had enough time once we crossed the line.
Question: Sebastian, do you think your season so far and your drive tonight has been a magical one?
Sebastian Vettel: As I said earlier, I don’t think there are any secrets so magic, I don’t know, maybe for some people. It has been an incredible year for us, an incredible record for both of us, in terms of reliability. We had no problems with the car, the engine was perfect from start to finish so touch wood, nothing has gone wrong so far this year and as I said, it does need a lot of small things coming together to make sure that you have an incredible season like we have had so far. It has been very enjoyable and everyone has been extremely disciplined in a way, target-orientated and we’ve all enjoyed it. I think those three things sum it up pretty well and we hope to carry on like that, carry the momentum into the next races and into the next season probably as well.
Question: Sebastian, Asia is now attracted to F1 racing. As the winner of the Singapore Grand Prix, can you please tell the potential Asian fans out there the attraction and excitement of Grand Prix from your own perspective?
Sebastian Vettel: I think it’s incredible. I think we all love coming here. Obviously we seem to race more and more in Asia over the last couple of years, but I think the excitement is great over here, the people really get hooked up to Formula One. I think this weekend, here, in particularly, is very special for people to come and visit, even people from Europe. As a fan, I think not only the cars on the track are spectacular, seeing them so closely, seeing them racing at night, seeing them right in front of you in the middle of the city, but also around the event, around the race itself there are obviously a lot of concerts. I think Shakira was there last night and Linkin Park is on tonight. Things like that make it all in all very spectacular for people to come and the attraction is huge. I think we all enjoy events like that and for us, I think the pleasure is huge. Once we are racing, we can’t really see how many people there are and the engines are quite loud so you can’t really hear, but before the race, on the drivers’ parade, to see the people cheering for all of us is great. On the lap after the chequered flag, to come back, seeing the people standing up, cheering for us - in a way, I think we are quite privileged to be part of that and see that, feel those emotions. It makes our job, if you want, very enjoyable.
Question: Sebastian, how close was it when the Lotus came out of the pits at the same time?
Sebastian Vettel: It was close, I had to lift. We went into the pits together, I think it was Heikki. Obviously I did my pit stop and then depending on how quick the Lotus boys would be, he would be coming out ahead or behind so I watched the lights - they have a system with lights, I think, so I watched their lollipop and saw them going off when I was just approaching. I was aware of the situation. I think initially that Heikki didn’t see me, it’s a difficult angle so I had to lift but I think it was more of a misunderstanding, obviously not Heikki’s fault. The team has to be aware of that. Did he get a penalty for that? As I said, I was some time on the way down the pit lane, I was aware but obviously if I hadn’t backed off, it would have been too tight for my front wing.
Question: Sebastian, Jenson was catching up massively at the end. How much of it was voluntarily from your side? You had a 3.7s lead three laps from the end and you were heading into heavy traffic. Normally you would want to have a cushion rather than the other guy being close to you.
Sebastian Vettel: I think it was under control, in a way. Obviously when we come up on traffic, I get it first. I have to slow down, have to take my time, it depends where you catch the traffic and how much time you lose. And then Jenson has to face the same problem once I’m through the traffic. I found myself going into the last lap with five seconds, which was more or less the gap we had before so I think there was enough room. Obviously I took it easy with the traffic because you never know how these guys are going to react. They are fighting for position themselves, here and there a blue flag could have helped out there which wasn’t there all the time, but I think you just need to be aware. Coming around the last corner on the last lap, I probably lifted off a bit too early so 1.7 seconds was obviously still enough, but I think we had it fairly under control and turned the engine down, the car down towards the end of the race, felt reasonably comfortable. Obviously it’s difficult to know if Jenson… it looked like he was flat out but in his position he has nothing to lose so he might as well go for it, but with the laps we had, I think we were in control.
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