Sebastian Vettel hails “perfect” weekend at Suzuka

Sebastian Vettel has hailed the Japanese Grand Prix weekend as perfect, with the reigning World Champion securing a grand slam of pole position, race victory and the fastest lap. The German led every single lap of the race, and was unchallenged by anyone during the 53-laps.

After enjoying a stupendous qualifying performance to secure pole position for only the fourth time this season, Sebastian Vettel looked practically unstoppable throughout the race as he romped to his 24th career victory and his second in succession. This saw him become the first driver of the year to win back-to-back races, and enabled him to close the gap to World Championship leader Fernando Alonso.

“It’s been a fantastic weekend.” Exclaimed Sebastian Vettel, after his dominant victory. “Yesterday’s qualifying was perfect and today again, the balance of the car was amazing. We didn’t change too much at the stops; it just seemed to work fantastically well. I’m very happy, the guys have been pushing very hard and even though we didn’t have major upgrades here, it still seemed to come together and the balance was there – and that’s what made the difference today.”

Sebastian Vettel’s victory was made all the more sweeter by the retirement of Fernando Alonso on the opening lap. As the reigning Champion stormed into the lead, the Spaniard made minor contact with the Lotus of Kimi Raikkonen and spun off into the gravel with a puncture. However, Sebastian Vettel felt sorry for the Ferrari driver, stating that it could easily be himself that falls foul of bad luck next time out at Korea.

“It’s a shame for Alonso, it’s not something you hope for and it could happen to us at the next race. We’ve seen this year there are a lot of up and downs and things change quickly – we have to keep our heads down and take it step by step.”

Sebastian Vettel has secured pole position at every Japanese Grand Prix he has contested at Suzuka, and has won all but one of those races from pole. The German driver won last season at Korea, and will be striving to replicate such successes next weekend as he continues to hunt down Championship Fernando Alonso.

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