• European Grand Prix

Tyre management was key - Vettel

Sebastian Vettel celebrates his sixth victory of the season © Getty Images

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• Report:
• Vettel eases to victory in Valencia
  

• Race:
• European Grand Prix

• Championship:
• FIA Formula One World Championship

• Drivers:
• Sebastian Vettel

• Teams:
• Red Bull

Sebastian Vettel said he had to push hard while staying on top of tyre degradation to take victory at the European Grand Prix on Sunday.

Vettel's lead never looked under serious threat from Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber behind him, but said he still had to pick his moments to step up his performance.

"Maybe from the outside it looked like a boring race for me, but I enjoy it so much when it's between you and the car every single lap," he said. "Of course I had pressure from behind at various times because the strategy was a little bit different to Mark and Fernando so they were pitting at different times - sometimes earlier, sometimes later. Even though I had a gap before the stop, I came out of the garage and still they were quite close again. So I was pushing hard but judging the tyres, trying to imagine what the end of the stint could be like and trying to foresee the strategy with every single lap between me and the car."

He said the car had improved again since the last grand prix as his Red Bull team continues to develop the RB7 to suit different challenges at different styles of circuits.

"For some reason I enjoy this track. Last year I had a very smooth weekend and again this year from the beginning to the end - it was fantastic, the team has done a phenomenal job improving the car," he said. "Even though we come here every year, thinking it might be tricky because this track is not made for us 100% with no real fast corners, still we managed to pull everything together and it was faultless this weekend. I'm very happy with result."

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