Zoom Gunning for his second victory of the season

For the second straight Grand Prix, Sebastian Vettel will line up on pole position as he looks to take himself and the Red Bull Renault team, perhaps not in contention for the title, but certainly for the runner up spot behind the all-conquering Jenson Button.

"Yeah, fantastic weekend," said Vettel. "From the beginning to the end we didn’t have a single problem. All the new parts we brought here seemed to have worked very well, so I think we have made a step forward but you know, when it comes to qualifying there is tension there. You try to do your best."

"From the beginning to the end it was very close to being perfect," he continued. "Of course, as a driver you always think there is a little bit here, a little bit there, but this lap was very good. I was able to use the tyres perfectly well and yeah, I brought the lap to the chequered flag and I was surprised by how quick I was at that stage and finally it was enough to get pole position, so that’s the most important thing."

Vettel, third in the standings with 29 points, has no realistic chance of catching championship leader Button who has 61 points to his credit despite the relatively early stage of the season. However, with the Brawn Mercedes driver starting sixth, the Red Bull star has the chance to make some inroads into his rival's advantage.

"Obviously if you ask for the championship ranking he has the advantage," Vettel continued. "He has quite a comfortable gap but we are here to fight, we want to win races and today I think we did the best possible job, it put us in the best position for tomorrow’s race but still it’s a long race."

"I can tell you now that we have a fantastic car. We have a chance to win tomorrow but you never know what will happen, so we will definitely fight. Of course, I would be lying to you if I said that I hoped that Jenson was straight behind me, so it’s good to hear that he’s not sitting with us in this room now but on the other hand it’s a long race."

"I think they have very strong pace, they have always proven so far on Sundays that they are extremely competitive, so even if he starts sixth I think he can still come back and score a lot of points – which I hope he doesn’t but they have proven in the past that they are able to do it, so let’s see tomorrow. We focus on ourselves, I focus on myself and we try to have a clean race and try to do the best we can,” he concluded.

Vettel will be keen to erase from his mind the numerous errors that he has made in early laps of the recent races and make sure he takes the maximum score this weekend at the British Grand Prix. Team-mate Mark Webber is close behind and will be waiting to capitalise on any mistake once again.

Earl ALEXANDER
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