• United States Grand Prix - Qualifying

Vettel ignoring Alonso's result

Sebastian Vettel will win the world championship if he scores at least 15 points more than Fernando Alonso © Press Association

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• Report:
• Vettel secures pole position ahead of Hamilton
  

• Race:
• United States Grand Prix

• Drivers:
• Sebastian Vettel

• Teams:
• Red Bull

Sebastian Vettel says he is not worrying about Fernando Alonso's lowly grid position even though he could clinch the championship in tomorrow's United States Grand Prix.

Having taken pole position, Vettel is well placed to secure the championship as Alonso starts eighth and has to finish at least fourth if Vettel wins the race. However, when asked about his feelings knowing Alonso starts so far back, Vettel said his primary focus would be on doing a good job and securing the constructors' title for Red Bull.

"Not much to feel, we have to look after ourselves," Vettel said. "I'm very happy, we had a smooth session, no issues; yesterday afternoon was not ideal, we lost a little bit of time. These things can happen and they might happen again. You never know, and therefore I think the best strategy is to keep your head down and just try to get the best, which I think was the target in qualifying.

"I'm very happy with the result but nobody has scored any points. I think we've seen in the last race how quickly things can change and even starting from the back does give you opportunities so we need to wait and see. But for us we just have to focus on our race and tomorrow we have the chance to seal the constructors' championship for the team so that's what Mark [Webber] and I will probably be looking out for."

Vettel even hinted that he could have taken pole position more comfortably after Lewis Hamilton was just 0.109s slower than him in Q3.

"I'm very pleased with the result. We started off on the right foot yesterday, the first practice was very good for us. It was extremely slippery to be honest to start with, obviously the circuit is brand new, the asphalt is brand new and it takes a while for the track to come in but it's also quite a lot of fun to slide around a couple of corners.

"It just got better throughout, I think you can see the lap times got quicker. Through qualifying I think we were very happy; in the last section I would have loved to go a little bit quicker - I think I lost a little bit in the first and the last sector - it was a bit closer than I wanted with Lewis but all in all it's fantastic. Obviously it's very important here to start from the front, we start on the clean side - both of us - so should be a good race tomorrow."

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