Six wins in a row gives Vettel title number four

There should be no doubt whatsoever that Sebastian Vettel belongs with the true greats of Formula 1. His sixth win in a row, his tenth this season secured him his fourth consecutive world championship joining the likes of Juan Manuel Fangio, Alain Prost and Michael Schumacher. It also helped Red Bull wrap up their fourth constructors crown.

As with so many of his victories Vettel’s drive today was emphatic. Many pundits predicted that Red Bull’s other driver Mark Webber could take the victory as strategy options for the race were varied. Vettel was starting on the soft tyre which could barely last five laps whereas Webber had qualified on the medium tyre and could have a lot longer first stint while in theory Vettel would be stuck in traffic.

Vettel hasn't won so many races and taken so many titles without things going his way. It’s not to say that events just fall for him, he makes it happen, he’ll see the opportunity, take it and exploit it to the furthest it can go. He did that today.

Starting from pole position, the only man to ever start from pole in India in three events, Vettel flew away from the line. He made a slight movement to the right to just let the Mercedes pairing know he was there before just taking off. Felipe Massa had made another excellent getaway and had bolted past both silver cars down into turn four, but Vettel headed the Ferrari by over two seconds as they crossed the line for the first time.

Vettel pitted after just two laps dropping down the field to 18^th place. As other soft tyre starters pitted he quickly gained positions and made decisive moves to get rid of the medium tyre starters too. So fast was he that he was into the top three in ten laps and after Massa, Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton had pitted to get rid of their soft tyres managed to get past Sergio Perez’s McLaren to take second and lie only 11 seconds behind Webber having been more than 18 behind.

It was an impressive performance. Once Webber had done a similar short stint on the soft tyres and made his final stop to go back onto the mediums, Vettel was back in the lead having made his final stop too. There was to be no stopping him. Try as he might Webber has just not been able to compete with Vettel this season at all, so as he tried in vain to catch his dominant team mate it was yet again the Australian who suffered the Red Bull bad luck.

An alternator problem took out Webber with 20 laps to go. It made the team look at Vettel’s data, a faulty sensor was leading them to believe that his car too could be on the verge of failure. Not that it stopped him lighting up the time sheets to record a fastest lap so far. As ever with Vettel though, he knew when to push his car and when not to; once he’d battled back into the lead there was never going to be a challenge to him.

Partly this is down to the fact that the other teams just have not done a good enough job this year while Red Bull have continued to develop their car with purpose. Vettel may well bow down to the Adrian Newey designed car, but significantly the other part is that I just don’t believe anyone is as good as Vettel at getting the maximum out of a good car. 

Anything the team ask of him he can do. We must not forget the Red Bull hasn’t been this far ahead for half the season, but Vettel had learnt from last year and had still built a pretty decent points gap before with the tyre changes and developments they allowed the car and consequently Vettel off the leash.

Once everything is honed you are not going to stop a driver of Vettel’s calibre. I will write more about his season as a whole over the next few days, but right now should just be a celebration of a remarkable driver. Some have said he’s making the racing boring, but he had to fight for his win today, and even when he’s dominating it’s an awe-inspiring performance.

Even his own victory doughnuts showed the world he’s the best at that too, for which he got a reprimand. But no matter, today was Vettel’s day and he took the glory with remarkable emotion and humility, he knows he’s lucky to do this job and he comes across as just a regular guy but one with an immense talent for driving racing machines right to the edge; no one could touch him this year, a truly deserving four time champion.

Grosjean charges from the back

Lotus have no need to worry about next season at all. They must know this now as Romain Grosjean took his third podium in a row with a fine third place finish from all the way back in 17^th. It was a great drive built on one of the longest first stints on soft tyres; he stopped on lap 13.

The Lotus’ look after their rubber well but this was fantastic. His team mate Kimi Raikkonen stopped six laps earlier and tried to make it to the end of the 60 lap race. It didn’t work, Grosjean used his slightly fresher tyres to close down Kimi, they were battling for the final podium spot and despite how quickly Grosjean was coming at him, the Finn didn’t make it easy.

Coming down to turn four Grosjean went for it around the outside, Kimi on dead tyres held him wide giving him a slight nudge and pushing Grosjean off the track. Romain had taken the place but gave it back as he’d exceeded track limits something that perhaps last year he’d have lacked the head to realise this.

He calmly pulled off the move a lap later while Kimi sank several places before grabbing some extra softs with a couple laps remaining and taking seventh. But Grosjean is the form driver and if hadn’t been for a poor team choice to keep him on medium compounds for Q1 he’d have probably taken second and maybe, just maybe challenged for the win.

Perez stars to give McLaren timely reminder

Sergio Perez took a great fifth place finish driving with a calm assuredness and his typically have a go passing moves. He started from ninth and as the soft tyre starters pitted he rose up the field to run second behind Webber before his first stop at half distance. A few laps on the softs and he switched back to the mediums to run just behind Massa and Hamilton.

He drove with consistency and maintained a good enough pace to allow him to be in a position to take advantage of any problems. Hamilton was catching Kimi’s tyre suffering Lotus, while Lewis himself was feeling his tyres giving up too. Perez used it to his advantage and using the DRS he passed both of them in one go and simply drove away. McLaren should give Perez another go next year, I think he’s driven well enough to be given a good car rather than the truck they gave the Mexican this year. Meanwhile his world champion team mate Jenson Button could only finish a disappointing 14^th after a problem filled race.

Massa looks to secure 2014 seat

Massa is in talks with Williams for next year, so it was good of him to put in his best race performance for some time. He out-qualified his Ferrari team mate Fernando Alonso yet again to line up fifth and then produced a great first lap to lie second. Once Vettel had pitted early he led for several laps before he had to make an early stop too.

Unfortunately while Vettel emerged in clean air, Massa came out into traffic and couldn’t cut throw the field quite as efficiently. Still, he held off the Mercedes pairing successfully until the final stops when Rosberg undercut him. He still managed to keep Lewis at bay and even began to close in on Grosjean. A good drive, one which he’ll need to replicate in the next three races if he really wants a 2014 place.

What the rest of the field did

Rosberg put in a great drive for Mercedes. While at first it looked like the silver arrow pairing might be relegated off the podium despite a great qualifying of second and third, Rosberg kept it all together and through strategy made it ahead of Massa. It was a crucial earlier stop that got him out ahead of Grosjean and meant he had first crack at the deteriorating Kimi. Second place was a decent result in a weekend when he looked to have the edge over Lewis who could only manage sixth.

The Force India’s had their best weekend for some time with Adrian Sutil particularly putting in a sparkling drive towards the front of the field before his first pit stop. Of course under the radar, Paul di Resta actually claimed the bigger points with eighth while Sutil slipped to ninth. A good result for di Resta, one that he desperately needed but not one which will have been noticed I fear.

It was about time Force India had something to shout about as they’d fallen behind Sauber and Toro Rosso on pace, but out scored them both this weekend to help them maintain their sixth place in the constructors race. Daniel Ricciardo grabbed the last point after running as high as third. Sauber meanwhile suffered misfortune as Nico Hulkenberg retired while Esteban Gutierrez got a drive through penalty for jumping the start.

Fernando Alonso

I can never forget the death stare of Alonso after he failed to win the world title last year. It was a face of such total disbelief and disappointment that he’d come so close and yet once again had failed. Today I imagine it was just one of resignation.

He hadn’t come close at all this season, in fact once the first few races were out of the way it was as if Ferrari failed to turn up. Well in a way, that is what happened as they haven’t brought any decent developments for quite some time. I believe Alonso on occasion has been guilty of perhaps phoning it in with the occasional flash of genius. He’s not looked happy, and after a race where he got into more scrapes in one lap at the start than he did almost all of 2012, I think we can forgive him that.

A damaged front wing and possibly the suspension too meant he could only manage 11^th. It wasn’t enough to delay Vettel his glory, only a top two position might have done that but we need Ferrari to produce a great car next 

year, I think Alonso needs to be reinvigorated.

It’s not over yet

There’s still three races to go, and still much winning to be done. I wouldn’t bet against Vettel getting another three wins to match Schumacher’s record of 13 wins in a season, then again I still believe we will see a new winner this year too with Grosjean being that man. A lot of racing is still to be done and with the title pressure off it’s time to have some fun. For Vettel that started in India but now he’s on a celebratory road trip, can anyone stop him? 

Final Result:

1. Sebastian Vettel - Red Bull

2. Nico Rosberg - Mercedes

3. Romain Grosjean - Lotus

4. Felipe Massa - Ferrari

5. Sergio Perez - McLaren

6. Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes

7. Kimi Raikkonen - Lotus

8. Paul di Resta - Force India

9. Adrian Sutil - Force India

10. Daniel Ricciardo - Toro Rosso

11. Fernando Alonso - Ferrari

12. Pastor Maldonado - Williams

13. Jean-Eric Vergne - Toro Rosso

14. Jenson Button - McLaren

15. Esteban Gutierrez - Sauber

16. Valtteri Bottas - Williams

17. Max Chilton - Marussia

18. Jules Bianchi - Marussia

R. Nico Hulkenberg - Sauber

R. Mark Webber - Red Bull - Alternator

R. Charles Pic - Caterham - Hydraulics

R. Giedo van der Garde - Caterham - Accident damage

all photo's taken from autosport.com