• Italian Grand Prix

Vettel hails 'unbelieveable' win

Sebastian Vettel won comfortably despite losing out to Fernando Alonso at the start © Getty Images

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• Report:
• Vettel cruises to Monza victory to close on title
  

• Race:
• Italian Grand Prix

• Championship:
• FIA Formula One World Championship

• Drivers:
• Sebastian Vettel

• Teams:
• Red Bull

Sebastian Vettel says his victory at Monza was "unbelievable" as he took his eighth win of the season in the Italian Grand Prix.

Vettel's maiden win came at the circuit for Toro Rosso in 2008, and he was emotional as he stood on the podium once again. With Red Bull expected to struggle compared to McLaren and Ferrari on the high-speed track, Vettel said it was a special victory to be so competitive and stand on the podium above the Tifosi.

"Yeah, very emotional," Vettel said. "The circuit means a lot to me and has been very special, obviously (I had) my first win here so when I crossed the line I remembered every single bit. And the podium is unbelievable, when you stand up there you feel so blessed because it doesn't happen to many people; so many people underneath and coming all the way from Curva Grande is filled with people.

"It's just unbelievable, a circuit that has been tough for us to really be competitive the last three years, and to come back this year really the car was amazing, in qualifying yesterday and in the race (it was) even better."

Vettel's car was setup with a short top gear which left him with less top speed, but he said it was clear to him that it was the right approach to take.

"I don't think we took any gamble for today I think we took the gamble yesterday in qualifying. Obviously people saw our top speed wasn't very high so our gears were probably shorter than the rest of the field, so we were not that optimistic in qualifying because obviously we can't use the speed with the wing open. But for the race we were pretty confident, and we were not afraid of the DRS zones in case we had to battle other people. I think it worked fantastically well, obviously I was able to pass Fernando without DRS but I think even with DRS it would have been maybe a bit more comfortable a lap later. But all in all I think we did the right thing, a great race car, great speed all the way through and I think we got the gearing just right."

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