Delighted Vettel hails RBR response
Date published : 04 Apr 2010 - 11:27:56
Sebastian Vettel paid tribute to the way Red Bull responded to the disappointment of the season's first two races after he led a dominant 1-2 for the team in Malaysia.
The German driver had lost likely victories in both Bahrain and Australia through reliability issues but the team experienced now such problems on Sunday at Sepang, Vettel outduelling team-mate Webber to the victory as the team fired itself back into the thick of the nascent 2010 championship fight.
Vettel believes RBR deserves great credit for the way it calmly reacted to its early-season difficulties, describing his RB6 as magnificent throughout in the sweltering race conditions.
What a day, he said.
Yesterday was very difficult with the conditions and today I think looking back it stayed dry all the time, we had a magnificent car and the key once again was to pace yourself and watch out for your tyres.
At the end of the day a very good result for us especially for myself after two races where we didn't finish probably where we want to be.
So to come back [and win]¦thanks to the team it's very crucial in that moment not to panic and stay relaxed.
Obviously it's a long season, but sitting here on Sunday afternoon having finished the race in first position is obviously the best result we can get.
On top of that with Mark in second place, it is a big plus for the team, a lot of points and I'm very, very happy.
Vettel had started third on the grid, but was in the lead by the first corner after thrusting past Mercedes's Nico Rosberg off the line and then diving down the inside of Webber into he first corner.
He admits his battle with the sister Red Bull was nip-and-tuck through the opening two corners and up the hill to turn four, but believes both he and Webber drove sensibly so to avoid any contract.
It wasn't comfortable, he said of his afternoon.
I realised straight away I had a good start, passed Nico and then obviously got the tow from Mark so was able to gain, gain, gain [positions].
It's a long sprint down to turn one so obviously I was clearly having an advantage over him.
Then I took the chance I had [to take the lead] into turn one it was quite late, so just made it.
Mark then had a bit of a better exit out of turn two and then through turn three, but it's very slippery and we both tried to push we are here to fight ourseleves but you should keep the respect and I think we both had respect for each other.
If Mark had been in my position I'm sure he would have done the same.
Vettel managed to hold a comfortable advantage over Webber for most of the 56-lap race but the young German insists it was never easy, joking he was even longing for a rain storm at one stage to give some relief in the 32C air temperatures.
After that it was a question of getting away from our competitors. I could see that Mark and I were more or less having the same pace, he said.
I think he was a little bit quicker in the beginning, I was trying to save my tyres it did work and before my stop I could pull away a little bit.
Then the second stint was extremely long, it's extremely hot here, I didn't stop sweating but fortunately I didn't run out of drinks in the car so was trying not to be too extreme in the beginning, but it is very hot and very physical.
At some stage I was hoping for rain just to get a bit of a cool down!
