Formula 1 – Vettel refuses to concede title

On September 10, 2012

Sebastian Vettel insists he can still win a third successive world title despite being forced to retire from Sunday’s Italian Formula 1 Grand Prix in Monza.

The German had been handed a drive-through penalty for forcing Fernando Alonso off the track before an alternator failure ended his race early.

We need to improve the car, we could see today the pace was not there.

Sebastian Vettel

Vettel is now fourth in the drivers’ standings, 39 points behind current leader Alonso, but remains convinced there are enough races left for him to overtake his rivals. He is 15/2 to win the drivers’ title while Alonso can be backed at 1/2, Lewis Hamilton at 4/1 and Mark Webber at 33/1.

When asked if he still felt he could win the title, Vettel replied: “Yeah, for sure. I think nothing has changed. Obviously this was not a very good result for us; we didn’t finish and it doesn’t help that the other cars are finishing.

“Nevertheless there’s still a long way ahead of us and we need to improve the car, we could see today the pace was not there. Nevertheless we were in a good position to finish fourth or fifth, something like that.”

Meanwhile, Vettel said when asked if he thought he should have had a drive-through penalty: “From my point of view it’s not – I think I left enough room.

“It’s extremely difficult; if you’re behind you lose the front so I don’t know what really happened to Fernando. I just saw that the next time I checked the mirror he was in the dirt. All in all I think he had much more pace, so he was faster and he passed me anyway.”

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