F1 News
Date: 28/October/2012
Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel extended his lead at the top of the F1 World Championship with his fourth win in a row during Sunday’s Indian Grand Prix.
But it was the performance of title rival Fernando Alonso that grabbed much of the plaudits, after the Ferrari star battled from fifth on the grid to second place.
While Vettel led from start to finish, keeping the lead even during his pit stop, Alonso fought tooth-and-nail to limit the Championship damage.
The Spaniard, who hasn’t won in seven rounds, spent the early laps elbowing his way past the McLarens of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button.
Alonso then later caught and passed Vettel’s team-mate Mark Webber for second, as the Australian struggled with a KERS problem.
“It’s not easy at the moment to fight with Red Bull, but we will never give up,” declared Alonso.
“We were not fast enough to compete against them here, so we lost the minimum points, which is finishing second. That was more or less the plan this weekend.
“Now we are 13 points behind. We know we need to be faster, so hopefully we can improve the situation in Abu Dhabi or in the USA.
“There are still many points on the table and I'm still very optimistic [about winning the title].”
While Alonso pins his hopes on future Ferrari upgrades, Vettel believes the key to his recent form has been focussing on the present.
“I think the secret, if there is any, is that we didn’t approach the first of these four races thinking we can win four. We focussed on the first one, then the second, then the third, then the fourth,” he said.
“We were in the moment. Not thinking about yesterday or last week and not thinking about the end of the race or next week.”
Vettel also played down the latest rumours that he has some form of future agreement with Ferrari.
The reigning double champion was eager to stamp out the speculation for fear of demotivating staff at the Red Bull factory, whose efforts he frequently credits for turning his 2012 season around.
“There's nothing to tell you, nothing I've signed [with Ferrari]. Nothing has changed. It's quite amusing. I don't know where it came from,” commented the reigning double Champion.
“Actually, there's one thing I would like to say. Because I can’t speak to every single person in the [Red Bull] team and if they read some stories in the press, obviously there might be some concerns back in the factory.
“But I'm 100 percent behind them as I feel they're 100 percent behind me and therefore I want to set this straight: there's nothing to report and I'm very happy at Red Bull Racing.”
F1 now heads straight to Abu Dhabi for next weekend’s 18th of 20 rounds.
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