Red Bull celebrate second constructors' title

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner paid tribute to his team after they secured a second consecutive contructors' world championship.

Sebastian Vettel's first place and Mark Webber's third means the Milton Keynes-based team now lead rivals McLaren by 140 points with three races remaining.

Horner said: "We have a really special spirit unrivalled down the pit lane.

"The last two years has been a phenomenal period for us and I'm tremendously proud of all them."

He continued: "It never gets easier, that's for sure. It would be foolish to underestimate the likes of Ferrari, they are a phenomenal team with tremendous pedigree, the likes of McLaren, the likes of Mercedes.

"We're not foolish or arrogant enough to think this kind of performance is normal. It's abnormal and it takes a superhuman effort to try and achieve.

"Our competitors will be pushing hard over the winter to do it, because once they could tolerate, but to do it twice upsets a little. But we've got continuity in all areas and that is very important."

Vettel, whose third place in Japan last week ensured he retained his driver's world championship, echoed Horner's words.

"I think it's good to see the whole team keeps pushing," he said, after celebrating his 10th win of a dominant season.

"In terms of preparation for this race, it wasn't ideal, because I think most of us were a bit tipsy after last week's race! To come here, after a tough Friday and Saturday morning, to qualify and race the way we did was fantastic."

Horner admitted that towards the end of the race he had been telling Vettel's race engineer Guillaume 'Rocky' Rocquelin to slow his driver down to ensure there were no last minute mistakes.

"We were trying to give him information that might slow him down, and then on the last lap he got fastest lap by about a second," Horner smiled.

Vettel said: "It's silly, because there are no points for it, but we've had such a good season with so many wins, and no fastest lap - I just thought it would be wrong not to have one."

"As a race this was more satisfying than last week, because I had the feeling I really got everything out of it. In Japan small things didn't come together the way they usually do.

"Winning a second title has started to sink in. You wake up in the morning and you're just happy. It's difficult to put into words, it's something you have to experience. Simply racing a Formula 1 car is an achievement."

Horner said Vettel, who will be visiting the team's Milton Keynes headquarters later this week, was assured of a huge welcome.

"He's a very special young man, a big part of our team, and to watch him grow and develop over the last couple of years has been fantastic. Even the karoake he take seriously, he's talented in many areas, and that what makes him such a popular and great member of our team."

Mark Webber, whose third place leaves him fourth in the driver standings, behind Vettel, Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso, said: "It's the team's race today, they deserve it, it's been very, very impressive by all the Red Bull boys and girls."

However the Australian was clearly unhappy about a pit stop strategy which saw him come in on the same lap as Lewis Hamilton.

Horner confirmed Red Bull's focus has to start moving towards next year.

"We've got less than four months to design and build a completely new car, and that is why [Chief Technical Officer] Adrian [Newey] elected not to attend this race, he's back in the UK focused on the RB8.

"But the remaining races are the only track time that we have other than a new driver test between now and when the new car is effectively born, so we'll look to learn everything that we can out of the track time that we had available, andwe'll keep pushing up to the chequered flag in Brazil."