Sin GP - Race weekend recap - Vettel

After the free practice sessions on Friday and Saturday, Sebastian Vettel might have expected to return to the top step of the podium on Sunday.

The reigning double F1 world champion topped the time sheets throughout FP1, FP2 and FP3 with the Red Bull driver ominously looking dominant heading into qualifying.

That form continued during the first part of qualifying with the German once again setting the fastest time during that session.

But the momentum then switched during Q2 and the all important Q3, with the McLaren of Lewis Hamilton not only being a match for Vettel, but beating him to pole position.

With the Williams of Pastor Maldonado setting a surprise time to qualify on the front-row, Vettel was down beat having been knocked down into third.

“It’s hard to say what happened. I was happy until the end of Q2, but then in Q3 we weren’t able to go with the track and improve. In Q3 I couldn’t feel the grip so well and convert it to the lap time. The most important day is tomorrow and we have got pace in the car. We have been competitive this weekend and our target is to have a good race tomorrow; P3 is still a good place to start from.” he told formula1.com after getting out of the car.

He was of course right, Maldonado suffered a poor start and Vettel settled into second place quite early on during the race.

Vettel never looked like fighting for the win however until Hamilton was forced to retire with a gearbox failure.

That meant that Vettel took the lead of the race and from that point on he never looked like giving up the points.

“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 (Hamilton) 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.”

The 25 points for Vettel and the retirement for Hamilton not only meant that Vettel regained second place in the drivers championship, but Red Bull were also able to extend their lead in the constructors title picture.