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Title win was 'breathless' - Vettel

Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull secured their third consecutive championship double in 2012 © Sutton Images

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Sebastian Vettel said that his championship victory in Brazil ten days ago left him "breathless" following such a challenging end to the season.

Having seemed set to cruise to a third consecutive world championship following four wins in a row, a qualifying exclusion in Abu Dhabi and failure to convert pole in to victory in the United States saw the title decided at the final race. Ultimately, Vettel's sixth place was enough for him to retain the championship as Fernando Alonso finished second.

However, Vettel admitted to Servus TV that the condensed nature of the calendar meant the closing races were even tougher to execute and added to the magnitude of his achievement.

"In that moment everything just stops, you are simply breathless, because as we have already said many times, this year was incredibly long and difficult for all of us," Vettel said. "Especially the last six races with those blocks of two races in a row and only a week in between. I think that was a bit of a horror not only for us drivers, but also for the whole team, the engineers and mechanics, because it sucked whatever last bit of energy you might have had right out of you.

"And then to be under so much stress right up until the end, and in that race everything that could go wrong did go wrong, and then to see the chequered flag and hear that we've got it in the bag, in that moment everything just stops and for a few moments you don't even see anything, you just try to breathe and realise what has actually just happened."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.