Sebastian, today most drivers needed to use Plan B but it all seemed to go very much to plan for you today.
Sebastian Vettel: Yeah, I think we had a smooth race. Obviously a very good start which was crucial and then I was able to pull a gap, right at the first stint, which was important as we could then afford to stay out a lap longer, wait to see what the others are doing in terms of strategy and just react. We always had this three, four to eight-second cushion to the second guy and it makes my life easier, easier to find out which strategy really works. All in all I am very happy. We lacked the Friday. I had an accident on Friday and crashed the car badly and all the guys, not only the guys around my car but Mark's guys, helped a lot and together they fixed the car. It meant some extra hours for them which I am sorry for but I think yesterday and today makes up for it. I am very pleased with the result and big thanks to the team.
Talk us through briefly your own tactics. It seemed you had to be quite fluid today?
SV: Yeah, it wasn't easy from the start to know what is going to happen. Of course you have a rough ideas about tyres and how long they will last but you really have to wait the first and maybe the second stint to see this is the trend, this is the way we are going. In the end, I think I could have afforded to stay out on my first set of prime, but you have to be in a position for whatever comes. I could have made it easily to the chequered flag, which gives us the pit-stop, around 15-20 seconds, but then again, if something happens or an accident elsewhere and a safety car comes out and obviously you are on a used tyre. I think it was the right thing to come in another time, even though it was just a very short fourth stint after the third stop. It was very much in control. I am very happy with how we communicated during the race and how we reacted so very, very pleased and I think since China we have definitely made a step forward. We have learned our lesson and we have to make sure that we keep this momentum into the next couple of races.
Mark, an eventful race for you. You lost ground at the start and then again to Fernando during the race. How did you make your comeback?
Mark Webber: Yeah, it was eventful wasn't it. The start wasn't that easy out of that side of the grid, which we probably expected a little bit. But it is not the end of the world as we have seen the last race starting 18th, it doesn't really matter if you are on the dirty side or whatever, even if you're at the front. I spent a few laps trying to clear Nico (Rosberg), which is obviously not ideal and Seb got a bit of a gap. I was then a little bit on the back foot from there. I cleared Nico and the guys pitted me a bit earlier than I expected, as I knew that the undercuts were coming into play and clearly there was a gap for us to come into. That's the way it went. We made our bed in terms of our strategy from then on. The fight with Fernando in the middle of the race was a little bit unexpected. He drove fantastic today. It was a good fight. Both of us used the DRS to get the moves done, so that was part of it, but the tyres play a huge role. In the end I had a fresher set of tyres from qualifying and got the job done on Fernando and that was it really. Congratulations to Seb: another victory. He is on a roll obviously but this is the maximum I could get today.
There were a lot of multiple phase overtakes today, passes lasting several corners. What was that like?
MW: I just think it is the way the circuit is on that last sector there. You try to get into the braking for 12 and then the guys can either run round the outside at 13 and then you have to try and have the rhythm or the line correct even to open the next lap. That is the reason why it is like that around here.
Fernando, you were second for quite a bit of the race. Third at the end but you must be pleased with the pace of Ferrari today?
Fernando Alonso: Yeah, absolutely. We did a good weekend overall. The car performed a bit better than what we did in the first three races of the championship. Finally we enjoy racing again and we enjoy a race fighting for the podium positions and as you said changing second and third position through the race. Finally we enjoy racing again.
Tell us about the pass on Mark and where he got you back
FA: As Mark said we lost a little bit of time behind Rosberg at the beginning of the race, so we forgot anymore the possibility to fight with Sebastian for P1, so we concentrated on P2. I had a little advantage in terms of tyre degradation maybe at that part of the race compared to Mark and as Mark said we used the DRS and I was able to overtake him. Then, in the last part of the race, it was more or less the opposite. We had maybe a little bit of a disadvantage with tyre degradation and we lost the position again but it was okay. I think fighting with Red Bull in these days is quite difficult and we were close so hopefully next time we will try again.
Sebastian, you're opening up quite a nice lead in the championship now. You have 93 points.
SV: It is good to get as many points as you can every single race. But it is a long, long way and we saw how quickly things have changed last year especially with Fernando coming and going and coming and going and in the end it was very, very close. We have to really go step-by-step, see every race on its own and try to maximise our points. But a good start to the season always helps, but it is a long, long way to go. Four out of 19, so you can work out how many points there are still to get so we have to keep focused.
Press Conference
sign in