As usual it may have looked easy from the outside, but Sebastian Vettel insists that he had to work hard to lodge a fourth straight Grand Prix win in Korea.
Vettel clearly met the challenge of keeping his tyres alive, but his first job was to stay in front on the first lap.
“It’s always tricky here because the way to the first corner is quite short but then you have two big straight lines,” said Vettel. “To be the first car is the worse because you have no tow. I had a good start and could focus on the first corner.
“I had a very good exit and was able to get a couple of metres between myself and Lewis and then I think Lewis was in more trouble with Romain from behind into Turn Three and I obviously benefit from that and had a little bit of cushion and again for the next straight and then kept the lead – which I think was crucial. After that I tried to build a gap and keep it quite consistent. I knew that on the soft tyres it will be tricky and yeah, obviously with the safety car later on it got quite busy.”
Vettel’s life was made harder by the safety car, which cost him the 5s margin he had established.
“Kimi pitted a couple of laps before that so his tyres were a little bit older but obviously took quite a long time before the safety car came back in and then there was another safety. So I think in terms of tyre age it was no problem. Obviously the cars get lighter towards the end, so fortunately we didn’t have to challenge the absolute maximum out of the tyres, because I think the Lotuses were probably a little bit better in terms of endurance. So, I think the speed was there and in the end obviously I tried to build up a little bit of a gap to Kimi and keep it quite consistent.”
As usual Vettel insisted that he’s not looking at the points just yet.
“I’m trying not to think about it to be honest. I’m trying to focus more on the present I think we obviously had the incredible chance, I think two years ago, to do so. We did it but I think there are still a lot of points to get, even though it looks very good for us. There’s still a chance for Fernando, I think, so we have to stay on top of our game but to be honest, I think I said on the podium, we’re just having a good time.
“We enjoy the fact that the team is working very well. The car is working… It’s on the edge to be honest, more so than you would probably think from the outside, but it’s obviously nice when you get the results like Singapore or this weekend. To be honest with you, I don’t really care. I look forward to Japan because it’s one of the nicest tracks of the whole season.”
Adam Cooper F1 