Post-race press conference Singapore Grand Prix (Part 4)
Race winner Fernando Alonso and 2nd placeholder Sebastian Vettel seemed very happy in the official press conference however, everyone was more interested in listening to what 3rd place holder Mark Webber had to say as he was involved in the incident related to Lewis Hamilton that cost Lewis the race around the 35 lap marker.
However, Mark talked about the tyres first and said that the tyres were in perfect conditions until the end of the race even though he used the same pair of tyres for 58 laps. There was not much left of them after the race though and obviously, since there is a lot of straight-line and exiting in this track so the rear performance of the tyres is very important. Mark thanked his team for their help and work as the team did a great job with the car. He specially congratulated Gavin and all the other engineers for a great job. The Australian driver explained his perspective of the race and the early pit stop. It was a very tough decision for the team but he was surprised, as they did not lose many positions. Mark cleared some cars after coming out of the pits namely Michael Schumacher, Kamui Kobayashi and Rubens Barrichello. He explained his way through the 3 drivers and praised them respectively as they gave him a tough time. The race became incredibly strategic for the team the car was suffering mechanically as well now. The team kept him informed about everything including the restart after everyone had stopped enabling Mark to gain his way to the third place. The Aussie then came to the incident between him and Lewis Hamilton. “It’s very easy to be set up and then to have a slipstream. Unfortunately we made contact, very similar to like he was with Felipe in Monza, just touching the front right on the inside of the back tyre”, he said. Mark added that he was trying to get the front of his car away and was very concerned as he thought that he damaged his own car as well. The vibration in the front of the car was surely because of that and Webber admitted that the contact was very dangerous for him as well and he had to just somehow finish the race without any problem that he did.
Webber did not have to worry about Jenson Button in 4th place either even though he was right behind the Red Bull of Mark Webber. The championship leader thinks he had enough gap over the British driver and it was quite similar to the run in Budapest where he went very long on the options and then came back out very nice on the primes and drove away easily. Webber knew that he did not have any chance against Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso so he did not think about trying to compete with them. The Aussie praised their performance and congratulated both of the drivers as he thought they drove fantastically. The two-hour race had taken a lot out of Mark Webber and it was certainly long enough for Red Bull as well. The spectators enjoyed the race and it was a great event in every aspect according to the current championship leader.
The drivers, tired and happy at the same time were finally done with the press conferences but still had to attend to some questions from the floor now. The drivers’ standings has taken another turn after the Singapore Grand Prix as Lewis Hamilton is now in 3rd place after his second retirement in a row. I wish we got to hear what Lewis had to say right after the race after looking at the results. McLaren is in cold waters now and they will have to take it up a notch if they want to win the title and beat their rivals Ferrari and Red Bull.
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