“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.
(Edited by Nick Pearce)