2013 Indian GP – Race Report

It was a memorable experience for Indian fans to see Sebastian Vettel and RedBull Racing seal their championship here in India with a dominant victory and getting placed in history books.

Vettel now joins greats like Fangio, Prost & Schumacher, the only others to achieve four or more world titles in the history of Formula1 and also the youngest to achieve the feat.

This will also be Vettel´s 6th consecutive victory and 10th of the season and 3rd in India in 3years.

What was even more memorable and fantastic is the celebration he put in after the victory in front of the grandstand with smokey donuts and threw his title winning gloves into the crowd. A real treat for the fans who would have felt that their ticket money was worth it.

The Start
Vettel didn´t have the best of starts but it was Hamilton who was on P3 got a stunning take off  but the Red Bull driver managed to block off the raging Mercedes to stay in the lead and pull away.

The title was almost sealed on c1 as the worst was on for Fernando Alonso who damaged his front wing after being clipped by Mark Webber who bounced off Kimi Raikkonen. Just two corners later on the same lap Alonso hit the rear wheel of Button causing the McLaren driver to run off track and spoiling the front balance of the Ferrari.

Hamilton who had a stunning start managed to pass team mate Rosberg into C1 lost momentum while trying to avoid the heavily locked RedBull  of Vettel in Turn2.  The Brit was overtaken by Rosberg  at the back straight but Massa got the slingshot ahead of both the Mercedes to get in to second position, 2.7secs behind the leader

At the end of Lap2 the soft tyre clad Vettel was told to come in for a change to medium rubber after managing to pace out the lap times required with softs as per strategy.

Vettel rejoined the track in 17th while handing over the lead to Massa for a short while but Redbull team mate Mark Webber who started with the medium tyres was surely set to take on the lead while the soft clad front runners pitted for their mediums. Alonso too came into the pits for tyre and nose cone change rejoining in 20th.

Vettel started to move up the field overtaking most cars and by Lap15 was running in 3rd behind Webber and Perez while young Mexican Gutierrez was given a drive through for a jump start.

Mid Part
Vettel started to reel in fastest laps of the race and moved into 2nd after overtaking Perez on Lap21 and just 12.2secs behind Webber while Alonso was struggling with his car and was fighting with Gutierrez  for 13th.

Rosberg and Hamilton were held up Massa but an early pit call placed Rosberg ahead of the Ferrari while Vettel started to close in on Webber.

By lap 29 Vettel regained the lead from second as Webber pitted for his soft rubber and rejoined 2nd.

As Vettel pitted for the second time in Lap 31, Webber too pitted again after his short soft tyre stint on Lap 32 and joined 10 secs behind the leader.

Webber, who was expected to challenge Vettel for victory with his medium tyre start strategy, was not able to cut in the gap of Vettel and by lap 39 the unexpected happened for the Australian. Webber radioed his team the he faced some problem with the gear box which was expected to clear but soon the alternator started to fail and he was messaged to stop the car at the track side on Lap 40.

Final Part
As Webber retired, Vettel faced no threats for the victory and he almost had one hand on the title as Fernando was struggling in 13th.

Raikkonen on the Lotus tried to hang on with single tyre stop in 3rd while his team mate Romain Grosjean gained constantly with fresh tyres after starting 19th. Sutil on the Force India too managed to stay out with a single stop while team mate Di Resta was working up the field with 3rd set of tyres.

During final stint of the race Rosberg got past the tyre worn Raikkonen for 2nd and just few laps later Grosjean, who was defending Massa started to attack the struggling Raikkonen but the Finn almost pushed his team mate out of the track starting a hot radio discussion within the team. Grosjean managed to pass his team mate cleanly and managed to pull away from Massa while Kimi was soon on the clutches of Hamilton and Perez.

Perez on the McLaren, who was running 2nd in the initial stages of the race beind Webber could not get ahead of Hamilton who was complaining of rear tyre grip. But the young Perez slingshoted Hamilton and Raikkonen on one go at the bridge to get into 5th while Raikkonen had to pit for new tryes to avoid getting beaten by the Force India of Di Resta on Lap 58. 

At the end of lap 60, Vettel went on to take his third consecutive win in India with a lead of 29.8 seconds ahead of Rosberg while also sealing his 4th title with 3races to go.

Grosjean was surprised with his own podium finish with Massa, Perez & Hamilton finishing 4th, 5th & 6th respectively.

Kimi with the fresh tyres put in the fastest lap of the race on the final lap finishing 7th.

The Force India´s of Di Resta and Sutil finished their home grand prix in points in 8th and 9th while Daniel Ricciardo finished 10th ahead of Fernando Alonso. Pastor Maldonado, J Eric Vergne, Jenson Button, Gutierrez and Bottas completed single lapped cars while Chilton and Bianchi were lapped twice by the leader.

Hulkenberg retired 6laps form the finish joining Webber, Pic and Van der Garde as non finishers in the Indian GP.