Turkish GP winner Sebastian Vettel has to lay off booze after Istanbul victory

Sebastian Vettel romped to glory in Turkey to become the toast of Formula 1 – and was then banned from drinking the victory champagne.

The 23-year-old German was in a different class as he took his third win in four races this season with an awesome display of driving outside Istanbul.

And team-mate Mark Webber recovered from a bad start to snatch runners-up spot from Fernando Alonso.


But while the older duo could glug down the bubbly on the podium, the sport’s youngest star was too young to join in.

Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has introduced strict new alcohol laws increasing the minimum age to 24 because of a nationwide drinking crisis.

“Seb is so young,” said Red Bull boss Christian Horner. “He’s only 23 and he wasn’t allowed to drink champagne on the podium because he’s under age here.”

A year after both Red Bull team-mates crashed out here while duelling for the lead, they proved they were back in command and in a different class to the rest.

Vettel moved a staggering 34 points clear of Britain’s Lewis Hamilton after just four races and could win the title in record time unless things change.

“This was a really sweet result today, especially after the problems we had last year,” added Horner. “Seb was dominant and Mark drove well.”

Hamilton trailed home fourth, 40 seconds after his German rival, with Jenson Button sixth. “The start was a disaster, so it was damage limitation after that really,” said Hamilton.


Although there was a feast of overtaking for the fans – and a record 82 pitstops to savour – it was all sound and fury signifying nothing. Overtaking used to be too difficult, now it’s too easy.

But the joy of one German at the top end of the grid was book-ended by the sorry tale of another at the back. It was a heartbreaking sight as Michael Schumacher, winner of so many legendary races, was elbowed down to 12th.

A chastened Schumacher said: “The big joy is not there at the moment, I have to say.”

But gazing up at his winner a happy Horner said that when it came to the sport’s current star player Vettel’s only error was made long before he arrived. “That’s some dodgy haircut,” he grinned.

Source: The Daily Mirror

Webber chasing Sepang champagne

Mark Webber is confident Red Bull will find the cause of his lack of pace in Australia and rectify the problem before he heads to Malaysia

While his team-mate Sebastian Vettel dominated the Australian GP weekend, Webber came up short at his home race.

He was almost a full second slower than his Championship-winning team-mate in qualifying while on Sunday afternoon could only manage fifth place.

It was a disappointing result for the Red Bull driver, made more so by the fact that the team could not pin-point why was second best to Vettel.

The Aussie, though, has revealed that although the team found "a few pointers", they still aren't sure as to the reason behind his lack of pace.

"We found a few pointers in the data but we'll need to strip the car down before drawing any conclusions," Webber told The Telegraph.

"Only then will we know whether something was broken, or whether there was something fundamentally wrong with the car.

"More than anything, I struggled with a lack of grip. That affected the longevity of my Pirelli tyres because the degradation was much higher on my car than on Seb's.

"I was forced to make three pit stops during the race, whereas he dominated proceedings with a two-stop strategy."

But despite losing out to his team-mate Down Under, Webber reckons there could be champagne on the cards for him this Sunday in Malaysia.

"It always provides an interesting race, especially with the weather," the 34-year-old said.

"It's a great challenge for the driver too in terms of temperature and we'll need to see how the tyres go there.

"We got a lot of information from the first race and we expect our car to be good in Malaysia - I want to get some champagne and up on to the steps."

Source: Planet-F1