F1 News
Date: 27/November/2011
Sebastian Vettel, F1’s youngest ever double world champion, claimed a record-breaking 15th pole of the year during qualifying for the Brazilian season finale at Interlagos.
The Red Bull star, 24, beat team-mate Mark Webber by just under 0.2sec and in the process broke the single-season pole record set by Nigel Mansell in 1992.
Having equalled Mansell’s record at the previous Abu Dhabi round, Vettel had just one shot at moving ahead of the Englishman - and the achievement clearly meant a lot to the eleven-time 2011 race winner.
“I put everything into the last lap. It was very emotional when I crossed the line because I knew that whatever happens I gave it all and then we to wait for quite a long time to see if my time was good enough or not.
“Obviously it took the master in qualifying, Nigel Mansell, a couple of races less [to take his 14 poles] but this is a very special moment for me.
“You don’t really worry about records going into a season. You can’t set yourself a target like that. Those sorts of numbers feel like they are made for ever and it would be ridiculous to think you might be anywhere close to them at the start of the year.
“I said to myself going into qualifying that I want to make sure I get everything out of the car there is and if someone else beats me then he totally deserves it. I think that is the name of the game every time.”
Vettel’s consistent ability to raise his game to new heights during the third and final part of qualifying has even prompted speculation that the German has been using some sort of short-term setting advantage for his final runs.
Now that the qualifying season is over, Vettel was asked to reveal the secret behind his pole success.
“I don’t know. There is no secret,” he smiled. “We had a nice dinner on Wednesday before the weekend here and a couple of the mechanics kept joking ‘where is the bag, where do you keep these couple of tenths for Q3. Do you just take it out?’
“Generally this year I think I was able, most of the time, to put everything into that one lap, or final run in Q3. Sometimes you want a little bit more but all in all I was pretty happy with my days on Saturday and we had good Sundays as well so there is no secret.
“Once we go into qualifying we all seem to enjoy it. I personally love the moment when you go out for your final run. You feel it is different to any practice run, or Q1 and Q2. You are so excited, nervous, as you know that’s the lap. The build-up to it is great and then the lap itself is like a rush so I really enjoy that.”
But Vettel’s pole may count for little if the predicted rain arrives for the race.
“The weather is going to be a big question mark,” said Vettel. “We knew that going into the weekend. The last couple of years have seen special races and special weather, so looking forward to tomorrow.”
Jenson Button, who claimed his world title at Interlagos in 2009, will start third on the grid for McLaren. He is also predicting an exciting race.
“I always love racing here. It is such a good circuit for racing and really fighting and out of the last corner down into Turn One is very good for overtaking and obviously we have the DRS out of Turn three, so hopefully we can get these two tomorrow.”
Button has a ten point advantage over Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso in the battle for championship runner-up. Alonso will start in fifth place, just behind Button’s team-mate Lewis Hamilton.
Webber also has a slim mathematical chance of second place, being twelve points behind Alonso, although the Australian’s main aim will be to break his season-long losing streak.
“It would be good [to get the win],” he said. “The whole weekend has been pretty strong and it would be nice to keep the heat on Sebastian. Both of us got the maximum out of the car today. Unfortunately I could not look after Nigel and get pole, but looking forward to the race tomorrow.”
No comments:
Post a Comment