Vettel dedicates win to Sid Watkins
It was a great result today for Sebastian Vettel as he won the Singaporean GP. As it is the first race since the death of Sid Watkins, the World Champion also dedicated this win to the long-time F1 doctor. Mark Webber meanwhile finished 10th but was demoted to 11th because of a penalty.
Sebastian Vettel, Finish Position: WINNER! Start Position: 3rd:
“It’s great to get the win today. I’d like to dedicate it to Professor Sid Watkins. It’s thanks to all the work he did to bring safety advancements to the sport that we can race on circuits like this. Looking to the race, Lewis had to retire which is a shame for him. I know how it feels and have been in that position before. I think we could have had a tight battle. I felt very good on the harder tyres and we had a lot of pace. I think it’s very good to get this win here today. We know the next few races will be tough, but that’s the challenge.”
Mark Webber, 11th:
(Mark finished 10th, but a drive-through penalty was given after the race for leaving the track and gaining an advantage)
“I wasn’t too bad pace wise. The strategy was going alright, but the second safety car really hurt us and put us to the back of the queue. Around here, fighting and looking after your tyres is a bit of a mess. It’s a shame. Sebastian got some good points for the Team, so that’s good and I’m just looking forward now to the next few races. I like Suzuka, so I’m looking forward to that.”
Christian Horner, Team Principal:
“A tremendous result for Sebastian and the Team to win in Singapore. It’s a timely win for both Championships. It was unfortunate for Lewis to retire from the lead, we know how that feels and it’s never a good feeling. Nonetheless Sebastian’s had tremendous pace all weekend and it’s a shame in some respects, as I’m sure they’d have had a great race over the remainder of the grand prix. With Mark, we elected to go onto a three-stop strategy and it was working reasonably well; there was the first safety car and, having just made a stop we knew we couldn’t get to the end on those tyres, so we made a gamble and stayed out. Then his strategy was destroyed with the second safety car, caused by the Schumacher and Vergne incident. We had to pit him from there to get him to the end of the race, which dropped him back. His recovery from there was strong.”
Cyril Dumont, Renault:
“It was a good way to recover after the last race result. We had the pace we expected today and it was good to convert the momentum that we had shown in the practice sessions. For Mark, it was a difficult race. Being in traffic is never easy here, but he did some good overtaking. For Sebastian – to win here you have to do the perfect race and Seb did it. Now we have to keep the momentum for the final six races.”
