AFTER dominating the last three races, Sebastian Vettel reigned supreme once again with his fourth consecutive Grand Prix victory, with his second win in India in as many attempts.
Red Bull has been working hard on updates to their car which has allowed them to not only challenge for another Constructors Championship, but also the prospect of a third consecutive Driver’s World Championship possible Vettel.
After dominating the race weekend once again having topped the timesheets in practice and qualifying, Red Bull left their competitors wondering how they could match this fine form in the latter stages of the season.
For the first time in their history, Red Bull posted their third front row lockout in a single season, which put them in a strong position for Sunday’s race.
Mark Webber had the better start compared to his teammate, but Vettel regained the advantage into the first corner to hold onto the lead.
The next few corners saw a demonstration of great sportsmanship, with Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso exchanging positions throughout the first few laps. All three avoided contact despite being millimetres within each other, which has been a recent problem with the younger drivers on the grid.
With the McLaren teammates battling throughout turn three and on the long run down to turn four, Alonso gained a double slipstream to get him past both McLaren’s. Hamilton quickly tucked in behind Alonso, and out-braked the Spaniard into the turn four hairpin.
Both Red Bull’s started to build a lead in the opening stages, showing off their upgrade of pace but also to avoid any potential threats from the Drag Reduction System used by competitors running closely behind.
A disappointing season for Michael Schumacher continued as a poor qualifying saw him start in 14th position. This would cost him dearly as he made contact with the front-wing of Jean-Eric Vergne, causing a right rear puncture on Schumacher’s Mercedes.
With the front runners looking likely to be on a one-stop strategy, the first pit-stop was by Sergio Perez who chose to two-stop with his strategy as he stayed on the soft tyres. Perhaps the added pressure of wanting to impress not only his team Sauber, but also his future team McLaren, ended up costing him as contact was made between himself and the front-wing of Daniel Ricciardo a few laps after his stop.
Despite Alonso, Massa and Button pitting between laps 25 and 29, the Red Bull’s were able to run longer into the race with Webber pitting at the end of lap 30 and Vettel pitting 3 laps later. After the race, Vettel claimed he could have gone much further with his tyres than the 33 completed laps.
Unusually, Hamilton was forced into changing his steering wheel as well as four tyres during his first stop. The McLaren team worked seamlessly though, and performed the switch during a 3.3 second stop, which barely cost him any time in the pits.
As the race progressed with plenty of overtaking in the DRS zone, Webber began to show signs of unreliability as there was a KERS issue with his car, which not only affected speed but also affected brake balance.
Alonso mounted a charge and soon passed Webber with the aid of DRS. Ferrari then gave the two-time champion the hurry-up after a radio broadcast of the Red Bull team highlighted the fact that there could be problem with Vettel’s car as sparks were seen around the bargeboard.
Webber was soon losing time to Hamilton who was taking almost two seconds a lap out of the Australian. Despite his late charge, Hamilton would fail to pass Webber, with the latter taking his second consecutive podium.
Vettel held on to win though, and has now led more laps consecutively than anyone has since Nigel Mansell twenty years ago.
The championship is still up for grabs despite the gap growing from six to thirteen points between Vettel and Alonso. As we all know, reliability issues and racing incidents can the outcome of a any session, and the season finale is shaping up to be one of the closest.
Robert Otim
Results:
1. Sebastian Vettel
2. Fernando Alonso +9.4s
3. Mark Webber +13.2s
4. Lewis Hamilton +13.9s
5. Jenson Button +26.2s
6. Felipe Massa +44.6s
7. Kimi Raikkonen +45.2s
8. Nico Hulkenberg +54.9s
9. Roman Grosjean +56.1s
10. Bruno Senna +74.9s
11. Nico Rosberg +81.6s
12. Paul Di Resta +82.8s
13. Daniel Ricciardo +86.0s
14. Kamui Kobayashi +86.4s
15. Jean-Eric Vergne +1 Lap
16. Pastor Maldonado +1 Lap
17. Vitally Petrov +1 Lap
18. Heikki Kovalainen +1 Lap
19. Charles Pic +1 Lap
20. Timo Glock +2 Laps
21. Norain Karthikeyan +2 laps
22. Michael Schumacher +5 Laps
23. Pedro De La Rosa – DNF
24. Sergio Perez – DNF