Zoom Vettel held off Heidfeld for 12th position

Sebastian Vettel started and finished the 70-lap French Grand Prix in 12th position while Sebastien Bourdais slipped back from 14th on the grid in the second Toro Rosso Ferrari to finish 17th well clear of the Force India duo.

Sebastian Vettel
“I think we can be proud of ourselves because we had a very strong race. We started and finished P12, but we were in a part of the pack that included McLaren and BMW. I think we did a fantastic job of keeping ahead of one BMW simply because we had a better pace. We were not so lucky in terms of traffic and I would have liked the rain to come and help us a bit in the last fifteen laps but unfortunately it only arrived fifteen minutes after the finish! Overall, we can be happy. It was not an easy race and I had a lot of graining which made life harder. Definitely a step forward in performance terms compared to the last couple of races.”

Sebastien Bourdais
“As soon as Nakajima, who was on a one-stop, got ahead of me at the start, when my engine bogged down a little bit, it compromised my race. I lost touch with the pack ahead and then I had to let Raikkonen past, but as he was in difficulty, I was actually pulling away from him, but I still had waved blue flags, which I thought was a bit harsh, so I lost around three seconds letting him by and then more time behind him.”

Gerhard Berger
“Vettel had a good race but there was nothing much he could do, as most cars ahead of him finished. On the plus side, we got both our cars to the chequered flag. There was nothing more we could do in a race like this. We had Vettel on a short middle stint to keep Heidfeld behind us, but there were no big strategy moves you could make. We were hoping for rain to make something happen and give us a chance.”

E.A. © CAPSIS International