Sebastian Vettel felt his Singapore Grand Prix was ‘incredible’ as he wrapped up a third victory of the season and his forty-second of his career, moving up into third place in the all-time list ahead of Ayrton Senna as a result.
The four-time World Champion was untroubled throughout the two-hour, sixty-one lap event, withstanding the constant pressure from Daniel Ricciardo to control the pace, with the Scuderia Ferrari driver also surviving two safety car periods.
“It was an incredible race today, in fact all in all an incredible weekend and it is difficult for me now to sum it up,” revealed Vettel.
“The race was intense and long, I had some pressure from Daniel behind me, we were the quickest two cars out there today, but I was able to control the pace and look after the tyres, which ran ok for the whole weekend.
“The car felt fantastic, I could control the gap until the end. Today we are in paradise, but we know we’re still a long way to go.”
Vettel admitted he was surprised not to be challenged this weekend by the Mercedes AMG PETRONAS team, but also revealed he didn’t mind not having them in the lead battle for once. He knows the German team will still be the team to beat in future races, starting next weekend in Japan.
“It has been a surprise that Mercedes hasn’t been on the pace this weekend, we don’t know why, but to be honest we don’t really care,” admitted Vettel. “I am very happy for the team today, there has been a lot of work going in since the day I joined in.
“For the next races we will keep pushing 100 percent, we’ll give our maximum, like always. As long as there is a chance we have to go for it, we have to do everything we can.
“Mercedes are the ones to beat, the best way to do it is looking after ourselves and doing the best we can.”
