Vettel: Not a Red Bull only fight

Friday 26th October 2012

 RSS
Vettel: Not a Red Bull only fight

Vettel: Not a Red Bull only fight

Sebastian Vettel has shot down claims that Saturday's pole position in India will be a two-man battle between the German and his team-mate.

Vettel, who won last year's Indian Grand Prix from pole position leading every single lap and setting the fastest time, picked up where he left off in Friday's practice sessions.

The German set the pace in the morning, edging McLaren's Jenson Button, while in the afternoon it was his team-mate who he beat by 0.118s.

Third placed Fernando Alonso, Vettel's main - and one could argue only - rival for this year's Drivers' title was third, 0.599s down.

However, Vettel is adamant this weekend qualifying is not a two-driver battle.

"I know it's not between me and him, it's not between Mark [Webber] and myself, it's between all of us." Vettel insisted.

"I think Friday is always difficult. It depends on a day like this, on a circuit like that, largely when you were out doing your new tyre run.

"I think the track improvement was quite big, we saw that until the end. I wouldn't be surprised if tomorrow looked a little bit different. We've had worse Fridays, so I'm quite happy.

"I think the benchmark is quite high from last year, so if we can do the same again this year here, that will be a good start.

"Today is Friday, we've got another practice before going into qualifying, I think we'll focus on that before anything else."

He added: "I was surprised with the long runs. I think we can be quite happy, we didn't have any major issues. We tested a few things.

"Now we need to say whether we made progress, and hopefully we can make progress for tomorrow."

This weekend's grand prix is Formula One's second visit to the Buddh International circuit with drivers complaining about a dusty track last season.

And although it started a bit dirty on Friday, Vettel revealed it didn't take long for the condition of the surface to improve.

"The track improved enormously, at least that's we found. The circuit kept improving, there was quite a lot of grip at the end."

User comments

    Loading

      Post a comment

      Sunday's Pictures From Canada

      Editor's Picks

      Team-Mate Wars: Montreal

      Team-Mate Wars: Montreal

      Andrew Davies identifies the winners and losers in their respective teams from Sunday's Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal...

      Winners & Losers: Canada

      Winners & Losers: Canada

      Vettel broke Red Bull's North American duck by scoring a dominant win - despite excursions, delays and diversions...

      The Forum Is Stepping Up

      The Forum Is Stepping Up

      So Seb's staying put but Webber may not be. Would you put a STR driver in his car? And which one? Let's chat...

      Montreal With Sure For Men

      Montreal With Sure For Men

      Lotus sponsor Sure For Men brings you a detailed pictorial timeline of the team's Canadian GP weekend...

      The PF1 Fantasy League

      The PF1 Fantasy League

      Join the PlanetF1 Fantasy League and go up against the crew at PF1 in our 2013 Friends and Enemies battle...