Sebastian Vettel is putting his ten place grid penalty for the Malaysian Grand Prix out of his mind and concentrating on the race.
The German ace once again impressed the paddock hauling his Red Bull into third place on the grid in Sepang, but a ten place grid penalty, which he picked up for colliding with Robert Kubica in Melbourne, sees him start tomorrow’s race from the seventh row of the grid.
Vettel says he is trying to forget about his penalty and focus on his race strategy – one that he hopes will be determined by rain.
“I have the penalty and there’s nothing I can do about that,” mulled the 21-year-old. “The secret is just to focus on what I’m here to do and I’m here to race, so that’s what we do”
“Of course it’s a shame to see the car performing at a good level in Q1, Q2 and Q3 and know that we have a plus ten tomorrow; we were up in the top five throughout.”
“It will be a very tough day tomorrow, but I’m looking forward to it and nothing is impossible. I’m hoping for some rain, as that can mix things up quite a lot, but let’s see.”
Team Principal Christian Horner meanwhile who has been outspoken about the controversial diffuser design on the Williams, Toyota and Brawn GP cars, says his team still have some catching up to do.
“A strong team qualifying performance today,” said the Englishman. “Both Mark and Sebastian are looking quick, but we’re just too far behind the double- decker diffusers at the moment.”
“Unfortunately, Sebastian has his ten-place penalty to take, but hopefully he can have a bit of luck tomorrow.”
