Q & A with Sebastian Vettel
Q. Did you have any fears after what happened in Fuji?
Sebastian Vettel: "Not at all, it was cool. I enjoyed myself."
Q. What a difference a week makes...
SV: "Yeah, last weekend everyone told me to keep my head up because I'd driven a good race, but obviously as a driver you need time to recover and get over disappointments, but this was a great result - a kind of payback. What we lost last week we got back today."
Q. Did it help having a race so soon again?
SV: "As soon as you put your helmet on you feel focused, so it was good to be driving again so soon."
Q. Did you have a good start?
SV: "I had a great first lap. I went around the outside and almost lost the car, because it was very slippery, but I then had a great first stint with a very heavy car. It felt perfect. It was great to see that I wasn't losing out too much to the cars ahead, because I knew they were stopping twice and I was on a one-stopper.
"It was just fantastic. Only two cars dropped out ahead of us so we'd have scored points on merit anyway. It has been a special day."
Q. Any celebrations planned?
SV: "I don't know. We'll have a good dinner tonight, and maybe a couple of drinks, but I'm not old enough to drink very much.
"We're a small team and still have to grow. Everyone keeps asking what we've changed in the past couple of races, but this is a real team with great spirit: we win together and we lose together. Even when we finish 18th or 19th, we never give less than our best. The team really deserves this.
"When I left Faenza, all the guys said. 'Hey, Sebastian, try to bring back some points'. I said I'd do my best. We were close in Japan, but here ... it's fantastic."
Q. How feel to get the kind of reception/adulation you've just had?
SV: "Great. This team is one big, happy family and we stick together no matter what. I think that makes us strong, even though we're lacking in budgetary and development terms, but maybe our family philosophy helps. I think we all work that bit harder to achieve results."
Q. We heard the radio on slow-down lap: did you say anything or just scream?
SV: "The text was quite simple. I was shouting, 'Yes, yes, yes, yes'. The chequered flag is really just a stupid wooden stick and a piece of cloth. It's a small thing, but it means so much when you cross the line at moments like that. It was unbelievable. I saw the guys on the pit wall - and also the guys from BMW, who were cheering for me.
"That was great. I left them but still have a great relationship with them. I think most of the Toro Rosso team were more or less falling on the track. When you see stuff like that you just let yourself go and I started screaming into the radio."
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