Vettel ignores Horner’s instructions to slow down at 2011 Indian Grand Prix – Formula 1 news
Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull Racing team clinched the championship title for this season at the Suzuka racetrack a few weeks ago, which ranked the German as the youngest-ever driver in Formula 1 history to have won consecutive titles.
For Vettel, however, this is not enough. The 24-year-old who received instructions from his team on not being too fast on the track, consciously ignored the orders stating that he was is still on the way to achieving as many accolades as he can before this
season ends.
Just this Sunday, October 30, 2011 the German won the inaugural Indian Grand Prix starting from pole position. It was his 13th pole of the season and 24th of his career.
Although he had already set an incredibly fast lap time at the 2011 Korean Grand Prix at Yeongam, he did not consider that sufficient and wanted to set an even faster lap time this time around at India.
He was clearly informed of the team’s decision well ahead of the beginning of the race to make sure that the two were on the same page. Despite the team’s best efforts to slow him down, by turning off the KERS, and engine modes, the team could not stop Vettel
for achieving what he had set out to do.
Horner commenting on the situation said, “At the end of the day we have complete trust in him, I'm sure that he still had a margin in there. The most important thing for him is to win the race, and he knows that there's no points for fastest lap. He likes
that little statistic to complete a perfect weekend.”
At the Indian GP, Vettel was seen leading Jenson Button of McLaren-Mercedes in the final few laps when he had already set the fastest laps for the major part of the race. It was only when two laps were left and his teammate, Mark Webber had challenged his
target of setting the fastest lap time, that a fierce reaction came from Vettel who cruised through the last lap to make sure he sets a faster time.
Before the race, he had received clear instructions from the team owner Christian Horner not to push limits and drive with caution. Vettel’s desire to achieve the fastest lap time for the race made him ignore Horner’s message and he dominated the race until
the end.
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