Dominant Vettel powers to India F1 GP win

Sebastian Vettel wins 3 in a row at India (2012)

Sebastian Vettel took another step closer to a third consecutive world championship with an emphatic victory in the India Grands prix.

The German led home his title rival Fernando Alonso in second and team mate Mark Webber in third, stretching his championship lead to 13 points over Alonso. For the Spaniard it was a case of damage limitation and a superb drive from him allowed him to achieve his best result since July.

Starting on Pole Vettel held off Webber into the first corner and from there led each of the 60 laps untroubled after building and conserving a sizeable gap of over ten seconds that was rarely eaten into to around the Budha International Circuit.

Further back in fifth Alonso’s scrap with the McLaren’s on the opening lap was arguably the highlight of the race, as the Spaniard managed to surge past both of them on the run down to turn four. Button edged back through, but the supreme straight line speed of the Ferrari saw Alonso take third off Button two laps later.

After a long chase Alonso eventually caught Webber late on and a KERS problem for the Aussie allowed Alonso to breeze through for second. As his KERS returned Webber was able to hold off Lewis Hamilton, who took 4th ahead of Button in 5th and Massa in 6th.

Kimi Raikkonen, sitting third in the title race, finished a disappointing 7 th after failing to find a way past Massa’s Ferrari after sitting behind him for the entire race. The Lotus’s poor development gives the Finn no chance of a come back title.

The final points went to Nico Hulkenberg in 8th, Romain Grosjean in 9th and Bruno Senna in 10th.

In a race of little action Michael Schumacher was unfortunate again as he suffered a puncture in the opening corner after a coming together with Jean-Eric Vergne. McLaren bound Sergio Pérez was the first retirement after he suffered a puncture while trying to overtake Daniel Ricciardo which damaged the floor of his car, while brake failure caused Pedro De La Rosa’s HRT to spin off. Two of the grid’s more accident prone driver Kamui Kobayashi and Pastor Maldonado clashed as the Sauber clipped the William’s rear tyre causing another puncture.

Vettel’s charge to a third title looks unstoppable as the Red Bull’s performance advantage seems to be too much for even Alonso to overcome.

Vettel and Webber will be expected to dominate again at the next race in Abu Dhabi but in both Austin and Brazil Ferrari will hope they have a chance to close the gap, the task is to limit the damage again in two weeks’ time.

With both Raikkonen and Webber finishing behind Vettel their title challenges are now effectively dead.

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