Tyre strategy won't decide the Indian Grand Prix, insists Sebastian Vettel

Sebastian Vettel

Reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel has said that the result of the Indian Grand Prix won’t be decided by the tyre strategies employed by various teams.

Vettel’s teammate Mark Webber along with Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen has employed durable slower tyres while Vettel and Mercedes pair of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg will start with soft tyres.

“We have been very strong on both compounds, and we decided to go with what I did and Mark decided for the opposite. We’ll find out tomorrow what is the right strategy, but the race is long and then there is plenty of time to make up. In the end, the strategies shouldn’t determine the result. We have very good pace, the car behaves well around here,” Vettel said.

Vettel was able to secure his 43^rd pole of his career with the slow tyres in qualification while Rosberg came in second with Hamilton just behind him. However, Rosberg voiced his concerns over the other driver and said that they could provide a challenge for the front runners.

“It was a consideration, but we decided the soft tyre was the best way to go. The mediums aren’t a gamble, because it’s a good strategy, but we just decided that our one was the better one. We’ve been a little bit quicker [than Ferrari] all weekend, but for sure that strategy is a threat because there is so little between the two strategies so we will need to keep an eye on them,” said Rosberg.