F1 News
Date: 16/11/2012
If Sebastian Vettel scores 15
points more than Fernando Alonso in Sunday’s inaugural Austin F1 Grand Prix he
will be crowned World Champion for the third successive time.
“It would be incredible,” said Red
Bull star Vettel. “It has been an extremely challenging season and different to
previous years in many ways.
“There are two races to go and the
points are there to grab on Sunday and not before. But for sure a third title
would mean a lot.”
Vettel’s caution is well placed
since unless the new Circuit of the Americas, in Austin, Texas, throws up a
surprise, it is most probable that the 2012 crown will be decided in the
following Brazilian finale.
Even if Vettel wins on Sunday, he
would need Alonso to finish fifth or lower and both drivers have been on the
podium for the past three rounds.
“We’ll just try to do a good
weekend because in my case I cannot win the title here. I can only save as many
much points and then fight for the championship in Brazil,” said Alonso.
Alonso is also chasing his third
F1 title, but a first for Ferrari - having won his previous championship at
Renault back in 2005 and 2006. Alonso has also lost out several times in final
round showdowns since, but insists the experience has made him stronger.
“I'm much more relaxed, much more
focused,” claimed the 31-year-old Spaniard, who beat Michael Schumacher to the
title at the last round in 2006, but lost out to Kimi Raikkonen in 2007, then
Vettel in the 2010.
“This is the fourth time we have
been fighting for the World Championship up to the last race - hopefully - and
you really feel the difference, being much more focused, concentrated and
understanding that if you do everything perfectly you have a chance; if you
make a mistake you will lose the chance, so let's focus on us.”
Alonso doesn’t think the fact that
Austin is a new track is significant and won’t be surprised if he again suffers
in qualifying, but remains ‘very confident’ in his title chances.
“I'm very confident, I trust my
team, I trust myself,” he declared. “We know we don't have the quickest package
out there and we've qualified an average of sixth or seventh this season, so if
we see that on Saturday people will say 'maybe you say bye bye to the title'.
“No. I think it's our normal
position but even with this normal position, we were leading the championship
until three races ago and we are ten points behind now, so qualifying is not
our strong point.
“Our strong point is to score more
points than the others on Sunday and I'm sure we will do this in the next two
races.”
The last US Grand Prix was held in
2007 at Indianapolis, where Lewis Hamilton took victory by 1.5s over McLaren
team-mate Alonso. A 19-year-old Vettel made his F1 debut at that event,
finishing eighth for BMW.
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