Vettel thrilled after 'perfect day'

The Toro Rosso driver culminated one of his strongest weekends of the year with his fourth point-paying result of 2008.

"Incredible! A perfect day," said a delighted Vettel. "It was fun but tough and hot out there. It's a nice race track.

"My start was not so good on the dirty side and going into Turn 1 I was right on the limit and very close to Kimi and could defend my position against Jarno for the first stint, but he had a bit more fuel on board and stayed out an extra lap and he overtook me in the pits.

"But we can be very very happy with this result. We made no mistakes, no mistakes all weekend and maximised our performance. The whole team can be very proud of what it has achieved and hopefully, for the next races we can be in the top ten again."

Sebastien Bourdais did not have such a good day after damaging his front wing at the start, meaning he lost a lot of time before it was replaced during his first pitstop.

The Frenchman went on to finish in 10th.

"That was a very nice race, apart from the fact that I touched with Heidfeld which broke my wing, which was a real shame, as I had to do 17 laps like that, losing around 20 seconds to the group I was in," Bourdais said. "The next two stints were good quality and I had a good pace.

"But I am happy with the result and I think we had the right strategy. It's my best result since Australia and especially from the second stint onwards I felt much more comfortable and confident with the car and felt I could push as the track rubbered in.

"As for the next races, I continue to tackle them one at a time and hope that next time out in Spa I can make it into the points."