• German Grand Prix

Vettel forced to push hard after KERS issue

Sebastian Vettel: "I was pushing every single lap" © Getty Images

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• Report:
• Vettel holds off Raikkonen for home win
  

• Race:
• German Grand Prix

• Drivers:
• Sebastian Vettel

• Teams:
• Red Bull

Sebastian Vettel said he had to push on every lap of the German Grand Prix to secure victory and revealed he was slowed by a KERS issue midway through the race.

Vettel won by just one second from Kimi Raikkonen after Lotus threw everything at the Red Bull driver with an aggressive strategy to try to beat him. Vettel had to fend off Romain Grosjean and then Raikkonen in the second half of the race, but managed to hold on to take his first victory of his F1 career on home soil.

"I'm very, very happy," he said. "It was an unbelievable race and Kimi was pushing very hard at the end of the race. They tried to do something different, with a different compound of tyre, but I think we had a very solid and controlled race. I was pushing every single lap, except the ones when I was behind the safety car. I'm very happy with the result and it was incredible to finally win in Germany."

Vettel said he suffered a KERS issue midway through the race but was kept motivated by his home crowd cheering him on.

"I could feel him [Raikkonen] coming and there was more and more pressure. I had a couple of laps where it was quite close with Romain as well, who tried to push very hard in the middle of the race. We lost KERS for a couple of laps so it was very difficult but fortunately the system recovered and it's very useful to defend properly. I was very happy when the race ended on lap 60 rather than lap 61 or 62.

"I felt the push from the crowd and I tried to focus during the last couple of laps, knowing it would be very close with Kimi once he had passed Romain. Incredibly tough and the Lotus was incredibly quick and good at looking after its tyres."

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