Q & A with Sebastian Vettel

The friendly German, who only found out he would be making his F1 debut late on Thursday when Kubica was not passed fit by the FIA, bounced back from a first corner off to finish eighth after a strong drive.

Autosport.com caught up with him after the race to find out how his afternoon had been, and what the result means for the future.

Q. You are the youngest points scorer in history. Does that record mean anything?

Sebastian Vettel: For me I don't mind, but maybe for all these people who are after this history stuff and statistics they care for this. To be honest, for me it doesn't matter. I enjoyed the pure racing and that was the biggest fun today.

Q. Are you pleased with how the race went?

SV: After qualifying, which was quite good, I was hoping for points. In the end we finished eighth and scored a point, but without my mistake in the first corner we could have been a bit more in the front. I think we could have been ahead of (Jarno) Trulli and (Mark) Webber, so sixth. But in the end I am very happy with the result.

It was very hard for me getting called up just on Thursday, so there was a lot for me to do to prepare myself mentally. But in the end the team gave me all the support, the trust and the confidence I needed. So it was a very good weekend for me and I simply enjoyed it.

Q. You looked quite fresh after the race. How was it?

SV: Yes, I wanted to have another race! No, I mean, I was quite exhausted. But I tried to prepare myself for this kind of task. So, in the end I knew this could happen. It's just a question of where and when. As a reserve driver you always have to be fit.

Q. Was it what you expected?

SV: For myself yes. After qualifying I was expecting to be quite up there, as we had a good race pace. We did some long runs on Friday. They were quite good and they gave me some confidence, but in the end it was my first race so there was nothing to expect. So I am just happy to have finished the race and, with one point, it is even better.

Q. What happened at the first corner?

SV: Yeah I was a bit too late on the brakes. I was trying to pull a gap again, as I had a bad start and the guys behind me were a bit close to me. So I decided to brake a bit later to keep the contact to the field in front.

But it was a bit too late and I could not finish all of my braking as there was Kovalainen braking and fighting with another car and being quite slow in that moment. So in the end I locked my wheels and I decided to go straight and cut the grass. Otherwise I would have hit him, and then for sure his race is over and mine, so that was not the way to do it.

After that, I got stuck behind (Nico) Rosberg and that killed our strategy and therefore we did not finish in the P6 that we were able to do but only P8. But it is not only a P8, I am very happy with it. Apart from the first corner it was a good race.

Q. At the start was there anything wrong?

SV: Procedure wise, or the way I released the clutch, everything was okay. But we have to see on the data. Maybe we expected different conditions on the track, the grip level or the tyres were maybe a bit cold. We have to see.

Q. Has this weekend made you more itching to get into F1?

SV: I mean you are always itching, especially when you are a reserve driver standing next to the track. This was the case with Australia, Malaysia, Barcelona, Monaco, and Montreal. So after all being back in that position again is for sure not easy, but not as hard as it was before.

Q. Shows you are ready?

SV: It is quite a big step and there is a lot to learn. I learned a lot today, especially with the tyres and how they behave over one stint or over three stints and how the track changes. So there is quite a lot to do.

Q. Did you get everything you could out of the car?

SV: I think so. Especially in qualifying it was good. The first qualifying session was good. I struggled a bit, but we were able to qualify easily in Q3. The lap in Q3 was good but could have maybe been a bit quicker. But in the end I am just happy to finish the race first.