F1 News
Date: 7/July/2013
Sebastian Vettel finally broke his
home Grand Prix jinx with a close victory over Kimi Raikkonen in Sunday’s
German round at the Nurburgring.
Vettel had been the man to beat after
grabbing the lead from pole sitter Lewis Hamilton into turn one, while Raikkonen
and team-mate Romain Grosjean exploited the tyre-light characteristics of their
Lotus to emerge as victory contenders.
It looked like race leader
Raikkonen may gamble on missing his planned final pit stop and try and hold on
to the end, but the Finn pitted with ten laps to go.
But the short amount of laps
remaining allowed Raikkonen to fit the softer compound tyres and the former
World Champion hunted down Vettel, having been waved through to second by
Grosjean.
Ultimately, reigning triple
Champion Vettel wasn’t to be denied and took his 30th win by exactly
one-second.
“It’s unbelievable!” said a
clearly relieved Vettel. “Kimi was pushing very, very hard in the end and
obviously they tried to do something different with tyres. Very happy with the
result and incredible to finally win in Germany.
“For sure, there are a lot of
expectations. Especially when you have a good car, when you come to home soil
people expect you to win. We never let that get to our head but it just feels
very, very sweet now to have succeeded after a couple of tries.
“It will take some time to sink in
but yeah, just incredibly proud today.”
Raikkonen confessed that he was seriously
considering skipping the final pit stop, but radio problems prompted a more
cautious approach.
“We had a massive problem with the
radio. I could hear them but they could only hear me between two corners,” he
explained. “I was wondering if we should take a gamble and try to go to the
end.
“Unfortunately there was quite a
lot to discuss and the radio didn’t work… So we decided to come in and put the
soft tyres. I got some help from Romain to get past and I caught up with Seb, but
we were too close on speed and it’s so difficult to overtake then.
“We tried everything and failed to
win but I think for the team we did a good race and got both cars on the
podium. So as a team we’re happy but obviously I lost some more points to Seb
in the championship. We keep trying.”
Adding a further dynamic to the Vettel/Raikkonen
battle was that the pair could well be team-mates next season - Raikkonen being
one of the favourites to take over the departing Mark Webber’s Red Bull ride.
Raikkonen, winner of round one in
Melbourne, rejected any suggestions that he was thinking of anything other than
winning the race.
“Absolutely not. I try to win and
it doesn’t matter if it’s a team-mate or some other team,” he declared. “Obviously
if there is a good chance to overtake I will try it, but we never got that
close so there was nothing to do really.”
Asked how he would feel if joined
by Raikkonen at Red Bull next season, Vettel replied:
“Well, I wouldn’t mind. I think he
wasn’t nice today to me because of that, but in the end of the day it’s not my
decision. I get along fairly well with Kimi; we never had a problem on track. I
respect him a lot. But it’s not my decision.
“There’s no doubt that he does his
job very well and gets the maximum out of the car, and that’s what - at the end
of the day - is our job. He’s quite good at what he does. That’s my opinion.”
Raikkonen responded: “He seems to be a bit better. I don’t know
what will happen in the future. Things will be decided at some point but until
that happens there’s nothing to talk about. I would definitely tell if I know
something just so that all these follow-up rumours and nonsense stops straight
away.
“Obviously I will try to make the
right decision for myself but it depends on many things; next year there are
rule changes, everything else, so it can be a right or wrong decision.
“Whatever it will be, I will live
with it and I’m fine with it.”
Fernando Alonso finished fourth on
Sunday, after Ferrari failed to reap any significant reward from choosing to
qualify on the hard tyre, meaning Vettel’s title lead has now increased to 34
points.
Hamilton meanwhile slipped back to
fifth place, with team-mate Nico Rosberg ninth for the home Mercedes team.
After the Silverstone uproar, following
a series of tyre failures, the German Grand Prix fortunately passed without
issue for the hastily revised Pirelli rubber. Yet a tyre still played an
indirect role in the scariest moment of the race.
Webber’s Red Bull was released
from the pits without the rear wheel properly secured, which promptly detached
from the car and struck a pit lane cameraman, knocking him to the ground.
“Paul Allen was hit on the left
hand side. Remaining conscious, he was treated at the circuit medical centre
and then transported by helicopter to Koblenz Hospital,” said an FIA statement.
“The Briton has been kept there, under observation.”
Round ten will be held in Hungary
from July 26-28.
No comments:
Post a Comment