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Vettel: No Regrets for Hamilton Pass

A good reason why the Brazilian Grand Prix provided us with maybe the most dramatic Formula One finish in the history of the sport lies with Toro Rosso's Sebastian Vettel. The German pulled off a great maneuver on championship leader Lewis Hamilton with two laps to go and, hadn't it been for Timo Glock's tire problem, could have stripped the Brit of his career's first world title.

However, the future Red Bull Racing driver admitted that he had no second thoughts on passing Hamilton for 5th place, even if that meant ruining the season for the McLaren driver. Moreover, the German argued that he would have done the same for Massa, although one might doubt a Ferrari-powered car would have caused the Scuderia such problems in such a tense season finale.

“No. Not at all. In the end I was racing against Lewis. And at the beginning at some point I was racing against Felipe. So if I had a chance at the beginning to pass Felipe I would have done it. I did my own race, and was caring only for myself,” said Vettel when asked about his attack on Lewis.

He added: “I don't care at all. I was doing my own race and looking after myself. To be honest, as I said already, I had no clue where I was or in what position and so on.”

He insisted, nonetheless, that he was unaware of his maneuver causing such a turnover in the race for the world title, as things went chaotic once the rain started in the last 5 laps. Everybody was pitting for intermediate tires and Vettel admitted he was quite confused when returning to the race track behind Hamilton.

“I didn't have a clue where I was after the stop. Before I knew I was running solidly in P5 behind Lewis. I tried to get him, but did not quite succeed. After the stop there were a lot of lapped cars. It was quite confusing with the rain getting more and more heavy. It was quite tricky to manage but I managed to pass Lewis one lap before the end. And on that last lap Timo - so I finished P4,” concluded Vettel.

The German ended the championship on an amazing 8th place overall, four points clear of closest rival Jarno Trulli. The German will be replacing retired David Coulthard at Red Bull racing next year.
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