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| Red Bull's Vettel makes it four wins in a row at Buddh International Circuit [PHOTO: FIA] |
Greater Noida: Sebastian Vettel moved 13 points clear of Fernando Alonso in
the Formula One Drivers’ Championship with a commanding victory in India.
It was Vettel’s second victory in a row at the circuit, his
fifth win of the campaign and his fourth in succession. Alonso could only manage
second behind the defending champion, a result which leaves him on 227 points
compared with Vettel’s 240. Mark Webber would likely have given Red Bull Racing
another 1-2 finish but for a KERS problem that allowed Alonso, 12 laps from
home, to ease by. Webber then held off a late charge from Lewis Hamilton to
hold on to third and his fifth podium finish of the year.
“I think it’s been an incredible two years for us, both
times to come here and win the race. To get the pole on Saturday and win the
race on Sunday is fantastic,” said Vettel. “There’s always a very nice trophy
so I’m very, very happy to pick up another nice one this year, so a very
special grand prix. I don’t know what is it about this circuit but I really
like the flow of it.”
Vettel’s fifth win of the season was largely sealed at the
start. When the lights went out both he and Webber made good starts off the
front row. The Australian momentarily drew alongside but he had to give way
though as they lanced towards turn one.
With that battle won, and in clean air at the front of the
pack, Vettel was able to build a solid lead over the first half of the long
opening stint. After a dozen laps he had forged a gap of over eight seconds
over third-placed Alonso. Webber was also settling into a good rhythm, almost
four seconds clear of the Spaniard.
Vettel made his one and only stop on lap 33, taking on the
harder compound and from there began to pace himself as he arrowed towards his
fourth victory in a row.
“I think we felt after a couple of laps that the tyres were
holding up reasonably well and then when you cross around 15-16 to 20 laps with
still something in the tyres left, you obviously know it goes more to the
direction of one stop,” he said of his long first stint. “I think we were very
competitive on the soft tyres; on the hard tyres I think McLaren and Ferrari
were pretty competitive. I think we were probably not as competitive on the
primes as on the soft tyres but all in all a fantastic race.”
Behind the leader, Webber was having a tougher time. After
his single stop he came under brief pressure from Alonso, but the Red Bull
driver responded to break clear of the sub-one second gap Alonso needed to
remain within to activate his DRS. It looked like Webber had done enough to
secure second but then the Australian reported that his KERS was no longer
working.
That difficulty saw him once again fall into Alonso’s orbit
and the Ferrari driver, scenting an opportunity, stepped up the pressure.
Webber defended bravely but with no boost the gap to the Ferrari soon fell
below the one second mark again and on lap 48 Alonso slipped past.
“It [the KERS] was on and off, and then completely off. I
was a moving target,” he said. “We needed to screw around with brake balance
and just manage as best we could [to not] lose rhythm and tempo. We needed to
keep the focus, but it is so demoralising on that straight with no KERS – it is
not really a battle. Fernando came past – they have good top gear – and that
was it.”
It was a tough break for Webber who was holding off Lewis
Hamilton’s McLaren in the final laps of the race.
“I pushed as strong as possible to get to the end of the
race, but I was lucky Lewis made a mistake on lap 57,” he said of his battle
with the McLaren driver. “That was important because he was starting to get a
bit of momentum. I was keen to keep him out of DRS as much as possible.”
For Alonso, Webber’s KERS issue was a gift. Despite seeing
Vettel extend his championship lead, the 18 points earned by the Ferrari driver
limited the damage and kept his title aspirations alive with three rounds to
go.
“Nothing [has] changed in one race,” he said of his
championship hopes. “There are 75 points [left] and we are 13 behind and we
know we need to improve. We are not fast enough, especially on Saturday, but we
can improve the situation in Abu Dhabi or in the USA. As we saw with Mark’s
KERS problem, it can happen to Seb or it can happen to us, so I am optimistic.”
He conceded, however, that Ferrari must improved quickly if
he is to stand a chance of taking his third championship win.
“I think we need to bring some new parts to Abu Dhabi and
hopefully improve a little bit the competitiveness of the car and get closer to
Red Bulls on Saturday and hopefully Sunday as well,” he said. “There are three
races remaining and the championship is the main target. We need to recover
some points. It would be nice to finish in front of Seb there [Abu Dhabi] and
if we win even better. For that we need to make a step forward as at the moment
we are not able to win.”
With Hamilton fourth, fifth place was taken by McLaren
team-mate Jenson Button, with Felipe Massa sixth. The final points positions
where taken by Kimi Räikkönen in seventh for Lotus, Nico Hülkenberg’s Force
India eighth, Romain Grosjean ninth in the second Lotus and and Bruno Senna
taking the final point in tenth for Williams.