Vettel eases to Indian GP win

2 Time World Champion Sebastian Vettel took another dominant victory at the inaugural  Indian Grand Prix,his 11th win of the season it what was a dull race in the main,with Jenson Button 2nd and Fernando Alonso in 3rd.

The Start

Vettel led away with Webber for once getting a decent start and holding onto 2nd after Alonso lost the back end into T1 which meant Button got through to take 3rd.

Behind there was chaos,Barrichello hit Kobayashi and lost his front wing,then Kamui as he returned into the track he had contact with Timo Glock,both men would retire.Then up at turn 3,Karthikeyan hit Trulli which would result in a puncture for the Team Lotus driver.Button would then pass Webber down the long straight into turn 4 to take 2nd place.Michael had the usual great start,getting into 8th place.

Vettel soon pulled a gap to Button,who was defending very hard from Webber but would then pull away as Mark’s tyres started to wear,with Alonso,Massa and Hamilton rounding out the Top 6.After poor starts the Toro Rossos fell behind Sutil but soon both would get past to move up to 9th and 10th,with Alguersuari ahead of Buemi,However Buemi would retire just before the midway point with what looked like an engine failure,while Maldonado would retire with a technical problem.

Massa V Hamilton

Massa jumped Hamilton at the start and then the gap was mainly between 1.5-2.0 until Massa outbraked himself into turn 1 on Lap 24 and on Lap 25 Hamilton had a go into T5,he was almost alongside but Massa turned into the corner and you guessed it,yet more contact between these two,Hamilton had damage to his front wing and was forced to pit,he would also struggle for pace after this incident.Massa would then retire on Lap 34 after hitting the orange kerb and broke the suspension again like he did in Qualifying.Lewis would come home 7th.

From there Vettel continued to lead from Button,Alonso,Webber,Fernando jumped Mark after the final pitstops,again due to Mark destroying his tyres and that’s the way it would stay.Vettel grabbed another record today by leading the most laps in a season,he took that from Nigel Mansell.Michael Schumacher drove a great race from 11th finishing 5th after jumping his teammate at the final stops after been much faster in the stint.

Celebrations were muted as the top 3 paid respects to Marco Simoncelli and Dan Wheldon,there was also a minutes silence before the race began. 

Driver and Constructor standings can be found here http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/motorsport/formula_one/standings/default.stm

RESULTS

1.Vettel

2.Button

3.Alonso

4.Button

5.Schumacher

6.Rosberg

7.Hamilton

8.Alguersuari

9.Sutil

10.Perez

11.Petrov

12.Senna

13.Di Resta

14.Kovalainen

15.Barrichello

16.D’Ambrosio

17.Karthikeyan

18.Ricciardo

19.Trulli

DNF

Massa

Buemi

Maldonado

Glock

Kobayashi

Race Rating:5/10

Driver of the day:Sebastian Vettel

Images © Zimbio

 

 

 

 

 

Vettel takes yet another pole in India

Sebastian Vettel took his thirteen pole of the season at the inaugural Indian Grand Prix,it was also Red Bull’s sixteen of the year,a new record,from Lewis Hamilton,who would drop to 5th after his 3 place grid penalty,which meant Mark Webber joined his teammate on the front row,with Alonso bumped up to third.

Q1

No surprises in this session,both Lotus’,Virgins and HRT’s were knocked out as was Kamui Kobayashi,Sauber really lacking pace recently and that trend seems to have continued in India.Both Jenson Button and Michael Schumacher had to use a new set of soft tyres to get through Q1.

Q2

Both Williams’,Renaults were knocked out,as were Sergio Perez,Paul Di Resta and Michael Schumacher,who complained about vibrations once again,both Toro Rosso’s made it through to Q3

Q3

On the first runs Vettel just went fastest from Hamilton,Webber and Alonso and Massa.

Vettel then went faster on his second run while Hamilton aborted his effort,while at Turn 8 Massa hit the kerb very hard and his front right suspension gave way and went into the wall at very slow speed which ruined Button’s lap as he was behind Felipe on the circuit and could only Qualify 5th because of that

Webber and Alonso did not improve on there second runs

GRID

1 Vettel 1:24.178

2 Webber 1:24.508

3 Alonso 1:24.519

4 Button 1:24.950

5 Hamilton 1:24.474(3 place grid penalty)

6 Massa 1:25.122

7 Rosberg 1:25.451

8 Sutil No time in Q3

9 Buemi No time in Q3

10 Alguerusari No time in Q3

11 Schumacher 1:26.337

12 Di Resta 1:26.503

13 Maldonado 1:26.537

14 Senna 1:26.651 

15 Barrichello 1:27.247

16 Petrov 1:26.319(5 place grid penalty)

17 Kobayashi 1:27.876 

18 Kovalainen 1:28.565

19 Trulli 1:28.752

20 Perez 1:27.562

21 D’Ambrosio 1:30.866 

22 Ricciardo 1:30.216(5 place grid penalty)

23 Karthikeyan 1:30.238(5 place grid penalty)

24 Glock 1:34.046(outside the 107% rule but will race)

Image © Zimbio