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Vettel: No Pressure to Clinch Title in Singapore
Chris Lines | September 22, 2011

An aerial view shows the main grand stand and the F1 pit building behind the Singapore Flyer. (Agency Photo) An aerial view shows the main grand stand and the F1 pit building behind the Singapore Flyer. (Agency Photo)
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Singapore. Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel feels no pressure to clinch the Formula One title at the Singapore Grand Prix on Sunday, and said on Thursday that he would attack the race with his normal aggressive style.

Vettel is expected to retain his title, and if he takes 13 more points than Fernando Alonso in Singapore, he will wrap up the championship with five races to go.

Given his dominance this season — winning eight of 13 races and missing the podium only once — Vettel could well clinch back-to-back titles beneath the Marina Bay lights.

“Our target coming into the season was to defend our title. We are in a very good situation, so there is no reason to change that. It does not matter when, it matters to us that it happens,” the German said. “I don’t feel any extra pressure trying to win the championship here. We just have to remind ourselves what our goal was coming into the season.”

Though he can afford to simply accumulate points rather than win races for the rest of the season, Vettel is intent on asserting himself on the track — he showed that in the previous race in Italy when he muscled his way past Alonso.

“It would be wrong to drive with the handbrake pulled, thinking ‘I just have to finish,’ ” Vettel said. “If there is a chance and a gap, we have to go for it. If not, there is no reason to try something stupid.”

At last year’s Singapore GP, Vettel could not get past Alonso on the Marina Bay track, and the Ferrari driver hung on for victory.

Vettel has yet to win in Singapore, and said the race was the most challenging of the season: the calendar’s only night race, a bumpy and tight street circuit that allows no margin for error, a race time that flirts with the two-hour maximum and the heat and humidity. That is not to mention the rain, which always threatens but had yet to hit over the first three years of the event.

Alonso’s chance of catching Vettel exists more in the realm of mathematics than reality, and when the Ferrari driver was asked on Thursday if he had given up hope of challenging for the title, he simply answered “Yes.”

“In general he has been the best driver, and the best team and the best package,” Alonso said.

Still, the he believes Singapore represents a better-than-usual chance for a Ferrari win, which would add to the team’s only victory this season in Britain.

Associated Press