F1 News
Date:
17/November/2013
Newly crowned four time F1 World Champion Sebastian Vettel
snatched pole away from Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber with a flying end to his
final lap.
Webber, driving in his penultimate grand prix before
retirement, looked to be on course for his third pole in four rounds.
But while the Australian pushed too hard to improve,
Vettel’s last sector sent the German into pole by 0.103s.
“I think it was very close with Mark, he seemed to get
closer and closer the longer the weekend has gone on. Fortunately I could just manage
to stay ahead,” Vettel said.
“I think he might have had a mistake in his final shot but
I’m obviously very happy with pole position.
“I really like this place, I like the circuit and looking
forward to tomorrow. I think it’s important as well to start on the clean side,
so we’ll see what we can do.”
Webber confessed that his efforts to improve on an already
fast pace proved his undoing.
“Sometimes you’re happy that you’ve given your best and
you’re on the front row but today [pole] slipped through the fingers,” he said.
“If I just repeated what I did previously probably it was
going to be enough, but I tried to squeeze a bit more out.
“But anyway we’re up there and well done to Seb, obviously.
He put all three sectors of the lap together, I put two-and-half together and
just dropped it in the last sector.
“It’s not satisfying when you do that. It’s not your job to
do that, but overall pretty happy to be here.”
Despite his recent form, Webber insisted he is having no
second thoughts about retirement.
“No, that’s why it was so frustrating to not get pole today.
Would have been good to
get another one off Seb at the end with a few grey hairs,”
he smiled. “Anyway, I’m having no second thoughts. Good timing for me. Hand
over to quicker guys.”
While Vettel will be fighting for his eighth consecutive
race win on Sunday, and 13th of the season, Webber has just two more
chances to claim a victory in his final F1 year.
With third in the Championship Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus)
missing the remaining races due to back surgery, Webber is also battling Lewis
Hamilton (Mercedes) for third in the final Championship standings.
Hamilton is nine points ahead of Webber and will start fifth
on the grid. Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso should secure the runner-up spot barring
a disaster on Sunday. The Spaniard will start from sixth.
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