Sebastian Vettel Blog: Sweet taste of success

Sebastian Vettel talks tactics and savours victory after extending his lead at the top of the Formula One Drivers' Championship with a win at the Monaco Grand Prix

by Sebastian Vettel on May 30, 2011

What an amazing day! I know that champagne tastes sweet, but the one I drank after the ceremony in Monte Carlo tasted even sweeter than usual! I am indescribably happy with our win and very proud about the whole team. They did an amazing job today.

I think it's easy to describe the race in one word: thrilling. I'm sure it was for the spectators and fans and it definitely was for us drivers. I would never have expected a strategy like the one we had today and that we would be able to get to the finishing line with only one pitstop. Well, almost one pitstop! We talked about it a lot and decided to put it all on one and not go into the pit for a second time. The worst that could have happened was a third place but I think that we would also have won if the safety car had stayed out.

'I never expected that we'd be able to finish with only one pitstop'

The key to our success today was definetely our endurance and the fact that we never lost faith in ourselves. Even the pit stop, which wasn't perfect, didn't change that. We lost time and the lead through it but that was when we knew that we had to give everything we had and attack. In the end, this approach helped us get back into the lead and, when we had the safety car coming out towards the end, it helped me to relax a bit and cool off the tyres. After the restart, we luckily didn't have too many laps to go and after a few minutes we were finally allowed to celebrate this fantastic victory.

I'm pretty sure that we'll go on and party tonight and have an amazing time. I want to send out a big thank you to everyone involved in this victory. It wouldn't have been possible without you. And also a big thanks to all the fans – you were amazing guys!

Talk to you soon from Canada!

All the best,

Sebastian

Source: Red Bull

Räikkönen craving home success

Kimi Raikkonen is one of Finnish motorsport's all-time greats. With a Formula 1 World title and 18 grand prix wins to his name, it would be foolish to argue otherwise.

However, the Scandinavian nation has always prided itself on producing the planet's best rally drivers, and this weekend's Rally Finland, the latest round of the World Championship, gives him a chance to become one of them.

Rally Finland, named the 1000 Lakes Rally until 1997, has been dominated by locals since its inception. Just eight times in 59 years has a foreign driver won (and only four of those went to non-Scandinavians).

Hannu Mikkola and Marcus Gronholm have both won the rally a record seven times, while Markku Alen and Tommi Makinen have taken six and five victories respectively.

Of the current front-runners, only Sebastien Loeb and Mikko Hirvonen have tasted victory, while three-time winner Juha Kankkunen will make a popular return after a few years out of the sport.

Loeb and Hirvonen are currently the two highest-ranked rally drivers in the Castrol Rankings in third and seventh places respectively, and will be sure-fire contenders for the win.

But what of Raikkonen's chances? His most convincing showing since switching codes unsurprisingly came on the asphalt-based Rally Bulgaria as he set some competitive stage times before crashing his Citroen C4.

However, the Citroen Junior Rally Team driver's best finish of his WRC career came with fifth place on Rally Turkey - a gravel event!

Going in Raikkonen's favour is that he has competed on Rally Finland before - his WRC debut came on the 2009 event in a Super 2000 Fiat and will be able to bank on the experience he gained on the Jyvaskyla-based event 12 months ago.

Going against the driver though, who lies 38th in the Castrol Rankings, is the strength of his opposition. As well as Loeb and Hirvonen, there's Ford's Jari-Matti Latvala (36), Petter Solberg (42) and his own team-mate Sebastien Ogier (28), who won't make life easy for him.

One thing guaranteed though is that he will be spectacular. If he can keep his Citroen between the trees and ditches for three days, he'll come out confidence enhanced. If he could win!

Source: Castrol Rankings