Champ: Vettel holds his latest trophy aloft as Hamilton and Alonso applaud

Champ: Vettel holds his latest trophy aloft as Hamilton and Alonso applaud

 

VETTEL WINS AT SPA—

 SEBASTIAN VETTEL: “I don’t think we expected to be dominant here, and it surprised all of us actually; it’s a great result. I think we knew going into the race that our race pace, compared to Mercedes, maybe gave us a little in hand, but we didn’t know where we were compared to the others, especially Ferrari, and Lotus looked very quick in dry conditions also. It wasn’t clear if the rain was going to come at the end of the race, so we kept pushing, but the gap we had by that stage meant we were able to control the race from there and the last couple of laps weren’t too stressful.”

CHRISTIAN HORNER, Team Principal: “It was a fantastic win for Sebastian and the team, which came down to the first lap. He had an average start, but managed to position himself well going through the first corner and he knew that the first run through Eau Rouge up the hill was going to be critical. He went for it, got in the tow and managed to make the move stick round the outside of Lewis and then got his head down and built up a great lead. For Mark, his clutch wasn’t good in preparation going to the grid. We did our best to tidy it up but he conceded a place to Rosberg off the start. Once he was comprised in his positioning within the pack, he wasn’t able to get a clean run through La Source and Alonso managed to get a run on him down the hill and pass him into Eau Rouge. Thereafter it was a matter of trying to find a way through, past the Mercedes and Ferrari ahead, but unfortunately whenever we got close enough we seemed to lose aero performance and so Mark couldn’t get close enough to make a move. We didn’t come here expecting to win today, so it’s great to get a victory to start the second half of the season”

 

Pos  Driver        Team                       
 1.  Vettel         Red Bull-Renault           
 2.  Alonso         Ferrari                            
 3.  Hamilton       Mercedes                           
 4.  Rosberg        Mercedes                           
 5.  Webber         Red Bull-Renault                   
 6.  Button         McLaren-Mercedes                   
 7.  Massa          Ferrari                            
 8.  Grosjean       Lotus-Renault                      
 9.  Sutil          Force India-Mercedes               
10.  Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari                 
11.  Perez          McLaren-Mercedes                   
12.  Vergne         Toro Rosso-Ferrari                 
13.  Hulkenberg     Sauber-Ferrari                     
14.  Gutierrez      Sauber-Ferrari                     
15.  Bottas         Williams-Renault                   
16.  van der Garde  Caterham-Renault                   
17.  Maldonado      Williams-Renault                   
18.  Bianchi        Marussia-Cosworth                  
19.  Chilton        Marussia-Cosworth                  

Fastest lap: 

Not classified/retirements:               

Driver        Team                         
Di Resta      Force India-Mercedes               
Raikkonen     Lotus-Renault                      
Pic           Caterham-Renault  

World Championship standings, round 11:                

Drivers:                    Constructors:             
 1.  Vettel        197        1.  Red Bull-Renault          312
 2.  Alonso        151        2.  Mercedes                  235
 3.  Hamilton      139        3.  Ferrari                   218
 4.  Raikkonen     134        4.  Lotus-Renault             187
 5.  Webber        115        5.  McLaren-Mercedes           65
 6.  Rosberg        96        6.  Force India-Mercedes       61
 7.  Massa          67        7.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari         25
 8.  Grosjean       53        8.  Sauber-Ferrari              7
 9.  Button         47        9.  Williams-Renault            1
10.  Di Resta       36       
11.  Sutil          25       
12.  Perez          18       
13.  Vergne         13       
14.  Ricciardo      12       
15.  Hulkenberg      7       
16.  Maldonado       1