Affairs at the Jupiter hotel − Sebastian Vettel

Sebastian Vettel

Posted May 19th, 2011 by admin

Vettel finished as runner-up in the 2006 F3 Euroseries, behind series leader and team mate Paul di Resta. He also made his debut in the World Series by Renault at Misano, winning after Pastor Maldonado was disqualified. However, at the next round at Spa-Francorchamps, his finger was almost sliced off by flying débris in an accident, and he was expected to be out of racing for several weeks. Nevertheless, he managed to compete in the Ultimate Masters of F3 at Zandvoort the following weekend, finishing in sixth place. He also set third fastest lap time, and it surprised his ASM team boss Frédéric Vasseur. Vasseur said: “I was impressed for sure, because at the beginning of the week I was sure he wouldn’t race! But he showed good pace from the first practice session. I can’t imagine he’s 100 per cent but at least we know we can be competitive in the next F3 Euroseries round at the Nürburgring next weekend& 160; that’s important.”

Sebastian Vettel

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“Lewis changed from three to four and I didn’t. If the second pitstop had gone perfectly and they maybe had told me to push harder it might have come out differently. But I was stuck behind Massa. It was very, very difficult and I was very frustrated. On the last stint I was a sitting duck. I was the only one on that three-stop strategy.”

After the postponement of the Bahrain Grand Prix, Vettel started his title defence in style in the Australian Grand Prix with pole position and a victory of 22 seconds over title rival Lewis Hamilton, who was nursing home his broken McLaren. Vettel continued his title defence in the Malaysian Grand Prix, where he claimed pole position and went on to win the race. Vettel completed his third pole position of the season at the Chinese Grand Prix, and appeared to be in dominating form for the majority of the race. However, poor tyre management haunted him in the last several laps, possibly being related to him being unable to properly communicate with his team as his radio was broken. He finished the race second, holding a 21-point championship lead over Hamilton after three races. The Turkish Grand Prix started out poorly for Vettel, where he had very little practice time on the track and seriously damaged his car in heavy rain. On race weekend he managed another pole and race win, extending his lead over Hamilton by 34 points as well as his consecutive pole positions to 5.