Sebastian Vettel: I won’t be able to dominate the drivers championship this season
The reigning Formula 1 world championship Sebastian Vettel believes that he won’t be able to dominate the drivers’ championship this season despite the fact that he scored 2 consecutive wins at the first 2 races of the 2011 Formula 1 season, and now has a 24-point lead over the rest of the drivers according to the drivers’ standings.
He recently won the Malaysian Grand Prix and proved that he is still the best driver on the track in terms of pace by scoring 2 consecutive pole positions.
However, it seems that McLaren is closing in on Red Bull Racing Team with each race as Lewis Hamilton’s second fastest time of the qualifying session of the Malaysian Grand Prix was just 1 tenth short of Sebastian Vettel’s pole position setting time.
As a result, the 2010 Formula 1 world champion believes that he won’t be able to dominate the championship this year.
“Some people were already talking of brutal dominance. But we've only had two of 19 races. We've seen within a matter of days how the pace can vary, with it much tighter in Malaysia than in Australia,” he told the media.
Vettel referred to his 2010 journey after giving this statement in which he snatched the drivers’ standings lead away from Fernando Alonso at the grand finale of the season.
“Look at last year with Fernando Alonso. People wrote him out of the championship, but he was the favourite going in to the last race,” he added.
After finishing in 2nd place, it seems that McLaren’s Jenson Button is now Vettel’s closest title challenger and the points difference between them is just 24 points which can be covered by a single race win. Button stated that a single retirement can change the whole picture and since it is just the beginning of the 2011 Formula 1 season, there is still a lot more to come this year with 17 races still remaining.
“The championship is wide open. Sebastian has 50 points. He's got a reasonably good lead but we are getting closer and closer. I know he backed off at the end in Malaysia but, if you see our pace throughout the race, we were as quick as him,” said Jenson.
He added that if Sebastian retires out of the upcoming Chinese Grand Prix and he wins, then the 2009 Formula 1 world champion would lead the championship. That is how fragile things are at the moment in terms of championship.
Ferrari and Mercedes GP on the other hand, are struggling currently but most of the drivers and critics believe that they also have a chance of challenging McLaren and Red Bull Racing Team for podium positions.
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