sebastian vettel

Bookmark and Share
New Formula One world champion

revealed rival Fernando Alonso has yet to congratulate him on his success as the German greeted fans in his home town on Sunday.

Around 10,000 fans cheered on the new champion in his home town of Heppenheim, 60km from Frankfurt, after two days of tyre testing in Abu Dhabi with his Red Bull team.

Last week, he flew to Salzburg, Austria, to visit Red Bull headquarters before flying to the team base in Milton Keynes, England, then went back to the Middle East for testing and was helicoptered into Heppenheim on Sunday.

Sebastian Vettel has admitted he and Mark aren't fond of each other, despite clearing the air after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in which Vettel became the youngest ever champion.

"Immediately after the race we had a long conversation," Vettel told the official F1 website. The Italian company is replacing Japan's Bridgestone as F1's sole tyre supplier next season and tested the new rubber in Abu Dhabi on Friday.

Red Bull's Vettel, who was second fastest behind Massa, said: "The tyres behaved well, better than expected."

All the teams are in Abu Dhabi, scene of 2010's final grand prix on Sunday, for two days of running with the tyres.

The focus of the test is for teams to understand how the tyres work and what that will mean for their 2011 cars.

Massa, 29, was 0.330 seconds quicker than Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel, the new world champion.

Vettel's best time was a 1:40.500 - 1.106secs slower than his pole position lap.

The German was 0.7secs quicker than McLaren test driver Gary Paffett, who is standing in for race drivers Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button on both days of the test.

Kobayashi added: "The tyres from Pirelli are well made. "The tyres were quite consistent. Pirelli has given each of the teams eight sets of tyres for the test divided between two different compounds, soft and medium.

"Our initial impression of the tyres has been positive: they were working well with good grip and no warm-up issues."

Pirelli is planning to use information provided by drivers and engineers to modify the tyres before official F1 pre-season testing starts in February next year.

There will be four tests before the 2011 season starts in Bahrain on 13 March.

The first three tests are in Spain, on 1-3 February at the Ricardo Tormo circuit near Valencia, 10-13 February at Jerez and 18-21 February at Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya.

{ 0 comments... Views All / Send Comment! }

Post a Comment