'Careful' Vettel shuns hat-trick talk despite slashing title race by four points with Japan GP win
Sebastian Vettel yesterday warned there was a long way to go in the Formula One championship despite his “dream” victory in the Japanese Grand Prix.
The 25-year-old defending world champion dominated in his Red Bull to win ahead of Felipe Massa of Ferrari and Japan’s Kamui Kobayashi, and close the gap on Fernando Alonso to just four points. But he said: “I am very careful. I think we had a long journey so far. It has been a tough year and there are still many races to go. Today I don't want to talk about theu00a0championship.” Vettel romped to his second straight title last year but he has suffered reliability problems this season before hitting form with his back-to-back wins in Singapore and Japan.
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Thrilled: Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel celebrates his Japan GP win. Pic/Getty images
And his position in the title race owes much to Alonso’s first-lap retirement after a nudge from Kimi Raikkonen. McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton was also right in the championship until retiring from the lead two weeks ago in Singapore. “Obviously it was an important step today but there's still a long way to go,” Vettel said.
“If you look at the last couple of races, after Spa (Belgium) it was very much up and down,” Vettel said.
“I don’t know what happened, but at Spa, Fernando was unlucky. You don’t hope those things will happen to yourself, but you know over the next few races it could happen. It is long season and crazy racing so far.”
Vettel, who scored his third win of the season, added that the weekend had been like a dream for him. I don’t think it could be better,” he added. “You come across these kinds of races very rarely. I had a very good race car, behaving very well. It’s just that the car suited the track.”
Suzuka results:
>> 1. Sebastian Vettelu00a0(Red Bull)
>> 2. Felipe Massa (Ferrari)
>> 3. Kamui Kobayashi (Sauber)
>> 4. Jenson Button (McLaren)
>> 5. Lewis Hamilton (McLaren)
>> 6. Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus)
>> 7. Nico Hulkenberg (Force India)
>> 8. P Maldonado (Williams)
>> 9. Mark Webber (Red Bull)
>> 10. D Ricciardo (Toro Rosso)
>> 11. Michael Schumacher (Mercedes)
>> 12. Paul di Resta (Force India)
>> 13. JE Vergne (Toro Rosso)
>> 14. Bruno Senna (Williams)
>> 15. H Kovalainen (Caterham)
>> 16. Timo Glock (Marussia) u17. Vitaly Petrov (Caterham)
>> 18. Pedro de la Rosa (HRT) u00a0
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