It was another Red Bull one-two at Interlagos, as the Brazilian Grand Prix signalled the end of the 2011 season. Here's what the drivers had to say...
The Vettel and Webber show
Even after a long year in far flung corners of the world, coming to Sao Paulo is always something of an oddity, even more so when the city is festooned with Christmas lights and giant animatronic Fathers Christmas. But once inside the confines of the Autóromo José Carlos Pace (aka Interlagos) everything returns to normal. There’s a race to win and a great circuit on which to win it. Battle rejoined one last time in 2011.
There was rain around on Saturday but it held off long enough for Sebastian Vettel to pole position, with Mark Webber making it an all-Red Bull front row.
It was Vettel’s 15th pole of the season, beating Nigel Mansell’s record which has stood since 1992.
“[this] pole position is really special. Different than the other poles I would say. Obviously it took the master in that discipline, Nigel Mansell, a couple of races less but very special to me and now just happy to be here, happy to start at the front tomorrow.”
Sebastian Vettel – Red Bull Racing
“I tried to help old Nigel out today but it didn’t work out, so a good lap for Seb. In the end, I’m happy to be at the front for the start of the race tomorrow.”
Mark Webber – Red Bull Racing
Vettel and Webber made a good start but the action took place behind them. Button stayed third but Alonso jumped Hamilton for fourth. Michael Schumacher and Bruno Senna were fighting down the field, resulting in Michael receiving a rear puncture and Senna taking a drivethrough penalty. Meanwhile Alonso got passed Button and set about chasing down Webber.
'This pole position is really special' – Sebastian Vettel
"It was a bit of a shame today with the incident with Bruno, which was caused perhaps due to some lack of experience, but then those things happen. Otherwise I think we could have had a nice race with some solid points.”
Michael Schumacher – Mercedes
“I had a very good start and then a good feeling. I was able to pull a gap straight away at the beginning.”
Sebastian Vettel
“Fernando was very close out of turn five, so I covered the line into six. Normally it’s an easy place to block but I looked at where he was and then when I looked forward again there was lots of debris on the inside. I think it was Michael’s [Schumacher] tyre and a bit of front wing. As soon as I saw that I didn’t want to drive through it. I couldn’t pull to the left because Fernando was already there, so I had to back out of it and just pull in behind Alonso. That was a bit disappointing and a little bit unlucky.”
Jenson Button – McLaren
Vodafone McLaren Mercedes
Meanwhile Vettel was being reeled in by Webber. Listening to Seb’s communications with his race engineer it became obvious he had gearbox problems.
“It was during the first stint, at some stage, that I got the message ‘we have a gearbox issue’. It sounded pretty severe, so I turned down the engine and then immediately started to short shift but it just kept getting worse. At that stage I didn’t know whether I would see the chequered flag or not.”
Sebastian Vettel
“I thought he was either in tyre trouble way earlier than he should be or no KERS or something was going on, because one thing Seb doesn’t do is forget how to drive from one lap to the other. When I started to take a pretty big chunk out of him per lap, I thought something might have been going down and then Ciaron informed me that he had a gearbox problem and I think I could smell it a little bit when I got close. My feelings were mixed because there was the chance to get the win but I know how hard the guys worked on Seb’s gearbox last night because it wasn’t completely smooth. They got it together but it turned out, obviously, in the end that something’s let them down.”
Mark Webber
'Well, I didn’t drive Seb’s car!' – Mark Webber
Mark passed Seb on Lap 30 and proceeded to pull out a gap. Vettel’s problems didn’t stop him putting in personal best laps as his fuel load came down. Cue conspiracy theories.
“Viewing this from the outside, I can say whatever I want, but as a driver you learn to adapt to a situation. If you’re told to save fuel, if you’re told to save brakes or whatever, you learn to adapt and you drive in a different manner. Many times this year we’ve saved fuel and you can pretty much match a lap time after five or six laps, because you adapt to it and you drive in a different way. That’s what we’re paid to do.”
Jenson Button
“I can tell you that I had a gearbox problem. I didn’t like the message but I had no choice: either you finish the race or you don’t. As I said, I turned down the engine, I felt happy in the car and I felt more and more able to understand the tyres after the first stint and keep the pace reasonably well, so I tried to stay as close as I could with Mark and then push where I was allowed to which was in the corners, not so much as soon as I started feeding the throttle, because I was forced to use high gears and upshift earlier.”
Sebastian Vettel
“Well, I didn’t drive Seb’s car!”
Mark Webber
Vodafone McLaren Mercedes
Meanwhile Button, having switched to the harder tyre which he’d preferred all weekend, reeled in Alonso and snatched back third place.
“We went to the prime tyre where the pace was much better, the car felt more consistent and the good thing was that we could get a good feeling on that tyre for the last stint. I was able to hunt down Fernando. It ended well and I had a lot of fun fighting with Fernando today.”
Jenson Button
“We got a very good start, putting a nice passing move on Button, but then, on the medium tyres, we no longer had the speed to fend him off.”
Fernando Alonso – Ferrari
Webber was able to cruise in the last ten laps – but didn’t and set a series of fastest sector times culminating in fastest lap as he took the chequered flag. Vettel crossed the line for second – much to the amazement of his crew. Button was third comfortably ahead of Alonso.
'I had a lot of fun fighting with Fernando today' – Jenson Button
“It was getting a bit frustrating because I kept pinching the front a little bit into Turn Eight. On the last lap I got it a little bit better otherwise I was probably going to bail a bit earlier, but I kept pushing pretty hard. Yeah, that’s what it’s about, isn’t it? Pushing yourself and backing yourself and having a crack. I was only racing myself at that point so it was a nice little feeling, as I say, to have the car working well underneath me.”
Mark Webber
“I’m really happy to be here. I think it was a great end of the season to finish with both cars on the podium, a one-two. Surely I would have loved to have finished the race in a normal way today but nevertheless I think we had a great, great season. Pretty incredible. Going into the season we thought we have a competitive car, maybe we can win some races but it has been… phenomenal.”
Sebastian Vettel
And that was that. A first win for Webber in 2011, another dominant day for Red Bull and plenty to think about for McLaren and Ferrari. Everyone allowed themselves an evening off before knuckling down to begin preparation for 2012. See you in Melbourne…
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