F1: Sebastian Vettel playing long game in title race

 
Reuters
10 June 2013

Sebastian Vettel knows it is too early to start thinking about winning his fourth successive Formula One world championship.

Vettel comfortably triumphed in yesterday's Canadian Grand Prix for the first time, taking the chequered flag for the 29th occasion in his F1 career and third time this season.

In terms of the title, Vettel ominously has a 34-point lead over Ferrari's Fernando Alonso who managed to limit the damage by finishing runner-up ahead of Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton.

Vettel, however, is wary of how quickly a situation can turn, citing his own charge in the standings last season when he trailed Alonso by some margin before going on to claim his third crown.

"I was in a different position last year at this time, and I was able to catch up quite a lot towards the end. I had very strong races," said Red Bull star Vettel.

"Fernando was a little bit unlucky here and there and we were able to come back and beat him.

"But this was 10 races from where we are now. There are so many things that can happen at any stage of the championship.

"Right now I'm happy to stand on the grid, focus on the race, trying to win. We will see later on if we are still in a strong position."

It proved to be third time lucky for Vettel after starting from pole in 2011 and again last season, only to finish second and fourth respectively.

On pole again, this time the victory was hardly ever in doubt from the moment he opened up a two-second gap at the end of the first lap.

There was a brush with a wall on lap 11 and a lapse in concentration on lap 52 when he ran through the first corner, but other than that he was never troubled.

In getting the monkey off his back, he added: "Finally I can tick this one off the list, so I am very proud of that.

"We've had good races here before, but it didn't come together to win, particularly two years ago when I was very close, only to lose it on the last lap. It was my mistake, but I made up for that today."

For Alonso, second was as much as he could do after starting sixth, ultimately coming out on top in a number of fascinating duels with Red Bull's Mark Webber and Hamilton.

Alonso said: "In the end second place is like a victory for us because we scored some points at the end of a difficult weekend."

It is the third time this year Hamilton has finished third on his debut campaign with Mercedes, knowing he needs more from his car and team to make a further step up the podium.

"The car's getting better, the guys are doing a fantastic job, so we just need to keep pushing to close the gap to these guys (Vettel and Alonso)," said Hamilton.

Lotus' Kimi Raikkonen could only manage ninth, equalling Michael Schumacher's record of 24 consecutive races in the points, but is now 44 behind Vettel.

As for McLaren, winners of this event for the last three years, the race was a bitter disappointment with Sergio Perez and Jenson Button 11th and 12th, ending their record run of 64 consecutive races in the points.

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