FORMULA ONE INDIA GRAND PRIX:SEBASTIAN VETTEL strolled to his 11th win of the season to become the first winner of the Indian Grand Prix in Delhi yesterday.
On Saturday, the champion had scored his 13th pole position of the season, handing Red Bull Racing a record 16 poles in a season. Yesterday he seemed intent on adding more glittering stats to his long list. In leading from lights to chequered flag, Vettel claimed the record for most laps led in a season from Nigel Mansell. He also landed a complete set of race stats, notching pole, win and the race fastest lap, set on the final tour of the new Buddh International Circuit.
“It was a very good race,” said Vettel, who, with two races to go this year, stands two wins away from equalling Michael Schumacher’s 2004 record of 13 wins in a campaign. “I enjoyed the time in the lead, I had a little bit of a fight with Jenson who strangely kept closing in at the pit stops. All in all it was a very smooth race, the car was well balanced.”
Vettel went on to pay tribute to IRL driver Dan Wheldon and MotoGP star Marco Simoncelli, both killed in race incidents recently. “I’ve a little bit of mixed emotions,” said Vettel. “I’m very proud to be the first winner of the Indian Grand Prix, but then on the other hand we recently lost two of our mates. I didn’t know Dan Wheldon, but he was big in motorsport, and this year I got to know Marco Simoncelli, so our thoughts are with them at the moment.”
Vettel finished the race 8.4 seconds ahead of McLaren’s Jenson Button, who had risen to second from fourth on the grid. Button had attempted to reel in Vettel and midway through the race had been informed by his engineer, given his lap times, Vettel could be caught. Button felt otherwise.
“The last race I struggled on the first lap and lost a lot of places, so I wanted to redeem myself here, and then (when in second place) I was just trying to hang on to Seb,” he said. “His pace was good, he didn’t make many mistakes. The tyres, when I came out of the box, felt good and felt competitive, but as soon as Seb got into a rhythm I could not do anything about it.”
Button’s 18-point haul and the six points scored by Lewis Hamilton for his seventh-place finish handed McLaren an unassailable second spot in the Constructors’ Championship but it is unlikely Hamilton in particular will recall the result with any fondness. The 2008 champion was in trouble from the off, being hit with a three-place grid penalty after last Friday’s first practice session for ignoring yellow flags and during the race he was, once again, at the centre of controversy.
On lap 24, Hamilton, who had started fifth after his grid penalty, was chasing down season-long nemesis Felipe Massa, when the Brazilian ran wide over the kerbs. It gave the McLaren driver the opportunity he needed and he attempted a move down the inside of the Ferrari. Massa, braking marginally later, darted ahead but turned in hard on the corner entry and, as they have done so many times this year, the pair collided.
However, whereas on previous occasions Hamilton has been on the receiving end of the wrath of the stewards, this time it was Massa who was sanctioned, the Brazilian being given a drive through penalty. His race later ended when he broke his front suspension when running wide across a kerb. Hamilton, meanwhile, was forced to pit after the collision and dropped back down the field. He recovered to seventh place.
“There’s not really much to say,” said Hamilton. “It’s a disappointing day. My team worked hard all weekend as they always do. I don’t really know what else to say. We had the one minute silence before the start of the race (for Wheldon and Simoncelli) and me and Felipe were standing next to each other. He hasn’t spoken to me in a long, long time so I put my arm around him and just said ‘good luck for the race’. But in the race I tried to overtake and I tried to come out of it because it didn’t look like he was going to give me any space, and we collided.”
Massa refused to comment.
It was a better day for Schumacher. The Mercedes driver had again looked a spent force in qualifying, lining up 12th on the grid, five places and eight tenths of a second behind team-mate Nico Rosberg, but in the race Schumacher was in superb form, rising to eighth in the first few laps. Later he passed Rosberg to claim a superb fifth place.
INDIAN GRAND PRIX, Buddh International Circuit, New Delhi
1 S Vettel (Germany) RedBull 1 hour, 30:35.002; 2 J Button (Britain) McLaren +00:08.443; 3 F Alonso (Spain) Ferrari 00:24.301; 4 M Webber (Australia) RedBull 00:25.529; 5 M Schumacher (Germany) Mercedes 01:05.421; 6 N Rosberg (Germany) Mercedes 01:06.851; 7 L Hamilton (Britain) McLaren 01:24.183; 8 J Alguersuari (Spain) Toro Rosso 1 lap; 9 A Sutil (Germany) Force India 1 lap; 10 S Perez (Mexico) Sauber 1 lap; Fastest Lap: Sebastian Vettel,1:27.249, lap 60
Vettel’s 11 wins this season
Mar 27th: Australian GP – S Vettel
Apr 10th: Malaysian GP – S Vettel
Apr 17th: Chinese GP – L Hamilton
May 8th: Turkish GP – S Vettel
May 22nd: Spanish GP – S Vettel
May 29th: Monaco GP – S Vettel
Jun 12th: Canadian GP – J Button
Jun 26th: European GP – S Vettel
Jul 10th: British GP – F Alonso
Jul 24th: German GP – L Hamilton
Jul 31st: Hungarian GP – J Button
Aug 28th: Belgian GP – S Vettel
Sep 11th: Italian GP – S Vettel
Sep 25th: Singapore GP – S Vettel
Oct 9th: Japanese GP – J Button
Oct 16th: Korean GP – S Vettel
Oct 30th: Indian GP – S Vettel
Nov 13th: Abu Dhabi GP
Nov 27th: Brazilian GP
Vettel needs to win both of the seasons remaining races to equal Michael Schumachers record of 13 wins set in 2004.
