Hamilton, Button, Alonso and Webber all pay tribute
Last Updated: September 22, 2011 5:31pm
Alonso: praise for Vettel
Sebastian Vettel's rivals lined up to pay tribute to him on Thursday ahead of this weekend's Singapore Grand Prix, in which he could make Formula One history.
Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button, Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber were unanimous in their praise of Vettel, who could retain his world title on Sunday.
The 24-year-old already possesses a number of age records, and two more beckon as he is poised to become the youngest back-to-back and double world champion.
With eight victories and 10 poles to his name this year, Vettel has been the dominant force, the German heading into the race with a 112-point cushion to his nearest rival.
That man is Alonso, the previous youngest driver to claim consecutive championships, with the Spaniard 25 years and 86 days when he achieved the feat in 2006.
Alonso claims Vettel and Red Bull have "been the best driver, the best team, the best package, and they deserve to be where they are".
As for Hamilton, he can only dream of the kind of year Vettel has enjoyed given the ups and downs the McLaren driver has experienced in what has been a rollercoaster campaign to date.
"He has been exceptional this year. He has really driven very, very well," said Hamilton.
"He has finished first and second in all the races, bar one when he was fourth, so he has been massively consistent, well controlled.
"He has made very few mistakes, and even the two small ones he has made (first practice crashes in Turkey and Canada) have not been very costly.
"I take my hat off to him, I think he has done fantastically well, whilst his persona, his attitude have been very professional."
Criticism
Button also doffed his cap, the 2009 world champion recognising the fact he criticised Vettel a year ago after the Belgian GP when the German smashed into him at Spa, forcing his retirement.
"I said last year before the championship that I didn't think he would win because he made too many mistakes. That was my opinion," said Button.
"But this year I think he has driven really well, and more than his speed he has made a lot less mistakes.
"He looks really confident in the car he is driving. He has a great car underneath him, and he has done a perfect job with it.
"When someone is in that form, the car is working like that and the team don't make mistakes, it's very difficult to beat them when you don't have one of those going for you.
"For us, we've made too many mistakes this year, and we haven't quite got it together on a race weekend even when we've had the performance.
"So that's something we have to work on - something we are working on.
"If you look at the last two races, if everything had gone well we would have had a really good chance of fighting for Seb for a win, but we haven't done a good enough job.
"He's done a very good job this year, and I'm sure he's very proud to be world champion again, which he will be in the next couple of races."
Key to Vettel's success this year is the fact he has not had a team-mate pushing him to the wire, unlike last season when he and Webber scrapped both on and off track - and to their detriment.
That was a point recognised by Alonso as he said: "Last season Red Bull were dominant, but they had some trouble in some of the races.
"I remember in Turkey when they crashed into one another, and in some other races they had mechanical problems and engine failures.
"But this year they have improved all those problems, and Sebastian is the only driver who has so far finished all the races.
No mistakes
"He is driving fantastically well. He has made no mistakes, or very few mistakes, whereas last year we had a few chances."
As for Red Bull team-mate Webber, there was also grudging respect as the Australian said: "There are a few drivers who would have loved the championship to go on longer.
"But he's had a great year, lots of victories, with everybody else scrapping for podiums."
Credit: Sky Sports (www.skysports.com)
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