• Singapore Grand Prix

Vettel happy to wait for title

ESPNF1 Staff
September 25, 2011 « Lotus extends Renault engine deal and gets RBR KERS | Button admits Vettel was too quick »
Sebastian Vettel said he was able to control the race with ease © Sutton Images
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Sebastian Vettel said that his victory in the Singapore Grand Prix was a "fantastic result" and that he was happy to wait until Japan to seal the world championship.

Vettel had the chance to secure back-to-back world titles in Singapore if he won the race, but with Jenson Button finishing second he still needs one more point to confirm himself as the 2011 champion. Having led every lap of the race on his way to victory, Vettel said that the car had allowed him to control the race with ease, and that he knew exactly how much time he could afford to lose at the end after finishing just 1.7 seconds ahead of Button.

"First of all I'm very very pleased with the result; the car was fantastic all the way through," Vettel said. "When we had to push we could pull away quite easily and pull a gap which helped us. Obviously the safety car came out and didn't really fit to our plan because we had a big gap - I think about 30 seconds and about 30 laps to go - but nevertheless I had a very good restart. I was a bit lucky that there were some backmarkers between me and Jenson and I was able to get back in to the rhythm straight away, pull a huge gap and then was quite happy.

"Towards the end with the traffic it is quite busy around here, there isn't much space and if you catch the traffic at the wrong place on the circuit you lose quite some time. So in the end on the last lap I faced five cars in quite a large group but there was plenty of room, obviously not that big margin when I crossed the line but I was in control of where Jenson was going in to the last lap."

Vettel was also relaxed about the championship, turning his attentions to trying to mathematically confirm it in Japan.

"All in all a fantastic result. I really love the track, I love the challenge; it's one of the longest races, the car was fantastic ... we were in a comfortable position for most of the race which is pretty handy around here because it's quite a big challenge to put the sectors together not only in qualifying but also in the race. The pace was good and I'm very pleased, for the championship it looks like we have another chance at the next race."

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