Vettel ignores team again to achieve ’clean sweep’

Sebastian Vettel on Sunday couldn’t resist pushing for F1’s coveted ’clean sweep’ in India.

Having started from pole, and while comfortably leading at the new Buddh circuit, the back to back world champion pushed hard towards the end of the race to also capture the fastest race lap.

Two weeks ago in Korea, the German - having similarly cruised to victory - was chided by his Red Bull bosses after ignoring a request to resist the lure of being the race’s quickest driver.

In India, they tried again. "I got some calls from my engineer reminding me what is the target, (that) there is no trophy for fastest lap," confirmed Vettel.

Those calls came before the penultimate lap, when the 24-year-old sped up. On the last lap, he was faster still.

"We spoke about doing that after the last race and Seb apologised," smiled team boss Christian Horner, according to the Telegraph.

"And yet two weeks later here we are. But he’s a sensible boy. I’m sure that he builds in a pretty big margin."

Red Bull did its best to guarantee that ’margin’ by instructing Vettel to turn his engine down, and the KERS system off altogether.

"And he was still setting purple sectors at the end," added Horner.

Vettel denied that collecting statistics and challenging records at present is one way to motivate himself now that he is dominating the sport.

"We are still hungry so we are not lacking motivation," he insisted. "All the people come with their questions but we seem to give them the right answers."