Suzuka, Japan: Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel won the Japanese Grand Prix from the pole on Sunday to close within four points of the top of the Formula One championship standings as leader Fernando Alonso of Ferrari crashed out of the race at the first turn. Meanwhile Sahara Force India picked up six points as Nico Hulkenberg finished in seventh place with teammate Paul Di Resta coming home at twelfth.
Speaking about the race, Nico Hulkenberg said he was very happy with the result. “If you had told me before the race that we would finish seventh, I would have taken it straight away – so I’m very happy with today’s result. I made a great start, moving ahead of several cars and was able to keep out of the trouble in turn one. By the end of lap one I was already in eighth and as it turned out we had good pace. The car felt strong throughout the race: there was a nice balance and I was able to chase Lewis and Kimi hard and put pressure on them. They edged away towards the end and for the closing laps I just had to make sure I kept ahead of Maldonado. So another seventh place – a well-deserved result for the team after a tough weekend for the mechanics and six important points for the championship,” said Nico.
Meanwhile Paul Di Resta said, “Quite a testing race for me. Things started to go wrong on the parade lap when I had a clutch issue, so it was not a big surprise when I made a poor getaway off the line. Going into turn one I was almost at the back of the field so I was able to stay out of trouble and avoid the accidents ahead of me. But when you lose so much ground at the start it’s difficult to recover. I was always in traffic and without running in clean air I couldn’t really show the potential of the car. We were not too far away with the set-up, but I never really found the sweet spot during the race. Hopefully I can go to Korea and get back in the points.”
Robert Fernley, Deputy Team Principal, termed it to be an excellent drive by Nico. “An excellent drive by Nico and very encouraging to see such strong race pace on a track that has never really played to our strengths. We made the right calls on the strategy and for much of the race Nico was up there pushing hard to get ahead of Lewis. Paul’s race was seriously compromised by a poor getaway, which we will investigate, and that meant we missed out on getting both cars in the points. In terms of the championship we’ve edged further ahead of Williams and Sauber remain just about in sight. I’d also like to pay special credit to both sides of the garage for their incredible effort this weekend. We kept them very busy and they did an amazing job under difficult conditions. Overall it’s been a remarkable team effort,” said Fernley.
