Vettel makes history
June 18th 2007 12:48
At 19, Vettel is F1's youngest-ever point-scorer
The young German finished the race in eighth position, earning himself one point.
Vettel started from seventh on the grid, two places behind regular BMW driver, Nick Heidfeld.
However, while Heidfeld gained a place into the first corner, Vettel lost a few when he out-braked himself and ran wide into the grass.
Despite this, he managed to recompose himself and drove a solid race to finish eighth, the place gifted to him when both Heidfeld and Williams’ Nico Rosberg retired from points positions in the dying laps.
“It was fantastic, a lot of fun but a longer race than I ever imagined it to be,” Vettel enthused post-race.
“The car was working well,” he said, “I could have been a bit quicker, but quite often I was stuck in traffic and it is extremely difficult to overtake here as the other guys are not sleeping and they know how to defend.”
“In the end when I saw the chequered flag I was quite relieved.,” he added, “It is good to finish the first race and better still in the points.”
Team boss, Mario Theissen was pragmatic in his assessment, "In the first corner he had to learn a lesson the hard way and lost three places. But later he drove a solid race without any mistakes," he said.
Asked whether Vettel would be permanently replacing Kubica (in the same way Kubica did to Jacques Villeneuve in 2006), Theissen issued a firm: "No way."
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