Red Bull Racing boss Christian Horner says that he and the team still have complete faith in Sebastian Vettel's ability to bring a car home in a race, despite the German's return to late-race fastest lap attempts in recent events.
Vettel set a pair of fastest laps in the final two tours of the Indian Grand Prix this weekend, securing fastest lap honours and wrapping up his first-ever Grand Chelem.
Vettel's final burst of pace came despite him being comfortably ahead of second placed driver Jenson Button, and followed a similar late speed run at the Korean Grand Prix.
After the race, Horner hinted in his official race report comments that the team had discouraged Vettel from going for the fastest lap.
"Despite a lot of encouragement not to, he still managed to set another fastest lap on his final lap of the race," he felt compelled to mutter in his comments.
The recent return of Vettel's obsession with fastest lap prizes has come after he secured the 2011 title in Japan.
But Horner has clarified that while the team would prefer him not to push so hard at the end of races, he had enough "trust" in his driver that he was in control of the situation.
"At the end of the day we have complete trust in him," he told reporters in India on Monday, "I am sure he still had the margin in there, and the main aim for him is to win the race.
"He knows there are no points for fastest laps, but he likes those little statistics to complete a perfect weekend."
But asked if Vettel had asked for permission to up his pace, Horner replied: "Of course not because he knows we don't like it."
He added that after Vettel had pulled the same stunt in Korea, the German had insisted that he would not do the same thing again.
"We spoke about it after the last race and he apologised and said, 'sorry, it won't happen again.' And two weeks later here we are," Horner sighed.
But he added: "He is a sensible boy, he knows. I am sure that he builds in a pretty big margin but I think he wanted to demonstrate what speed he was capable of here."
The Indian GP fastest lap was only the third time in 2011 Vettel had taken that prize, after also setting the fastest time in Valencia and Korea.
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