Lap Record:
1:27.249 S Vettel (2011)
Lap Length:
5.14km
Race Length:
60 Laps
Total
Distance: 308.4km
Tyre
Allocation: Soft & Hard
Start Grid -
http://www.formula1.com/results/season/2012/880/7112/
Incredible
India put on the opportunity for an incredible race, and in some aspects it
delivered, but in its second year, there was a sense of deja vu as Vettel
streaked away once again at the Buddh International Circuit in New Delhi to
claim his fourth win in a row and his fifth of the season.
 |
| Vettel Celebrates As Alonso Hangs On To Title Fight |
Let’s face
it, after turn three, we barely needed to see him on camera. The brilliant first few
corners however showed the juniors of the grid how to race wheel-to-wheel at the top end of the grid
with full intensity but with all battling drivers making it to tell the tale
afterwards.
The real
story of the race was Alonso’s battle towards finishing second from P5, emerging
4th after this first lap tussle with the two McLaren’s. Whilst
Webber had a KERS issue, Alonso still did a great job in a less able car to
hunt the resident Aussie down, and as sparks from the underside of Vettel’s car
started to spark with less than ten laps to go, I wondered if the unpredictable
story of the 2012 season was about to get it’s mojo back. This turned out to be
a mere scare for a lap, but nevertheless, with 75 points still to play for, and
Alonso only 13 points behind – considering Vettel’s winning streak and two
DNF’s through no fault of his own in Belgium and Japan, this seems astoundingly
impressive and all is not lost yet. With Ferrari announcing updates for the rest of the races of the
season, the championship is most certainly still alive.
Championship
Table after Italian Grand Prix (Round 13)
Fernando
Alonso – 179
Lewis
Hamilton – 142
Kimi
Raikkonen – 141
Sebastian
Vettel – 140
Mark Webber
– 132
Elsewhere,
it was a setup decision before qualifying that cost Kimi Raikkonen who is
admirably still third in the championship ahead of Webber’s Red Bull and both McLaren’s.
Of course in Parc Ferme ruling, he could not change his fundamental setup, and
paid the price in the race in particular stuck behind Massa’s Ferrari who had an
uneventful race, managing fuel for the most part.
Jenson Button dropped a place to P5 after struggling with the soft compound tyre, whilst Hamilton challenged Webber well to finish P4, providing a battle to the last lap on-track. One of the highlights of the race came from the pitlane, as in a 3.3 second stop, Lewis and his mechanic impressively changed his wheel before exiting again after radio troubles early on.
 |
| Hamilton Sporting A Special Indian Grand Prix Helmet (Wait, Vettel Didn't?!) |
After a
lacklustre Korean Grand Prix, Williams came back with some decent pace; in
particular Senna outshone his teammate on pure pace and race craft. It’s a
shame Bruno didn’t maximise his potential and get into the top ten for a Q3
shootout, ending up qualifying P13, as he may have had a chance of getting more
than the point he gained for finishing P10. Nevertheless, this performance may
improve his chances of keeping his Williams drive for 2013, or at least his
career in Formula One.
His teammate
Maldonado was involved in one of many similar incidents involving punctures as
a result of touching with front wings. Another of these occurrences involved
Schumacher in the first corner, as his bad luck and results continue,
eventually retiring for the eighth time in seventeen races, making it almost an
almost 50% retirement rate. Whilst on this occasion it was for pre-cautionary
races, Rosberg’s result and pace summed up Mercedes team position currently.
Having not
scored any points for three races in a row and Sauber in sixth lurking twenty
points behind, it wouldn’t be a great surprise to astonishingly see Sauber beat
the global force, budget and resources of Mercedes AMG. What an incredible feat
that potential result would be, and the prize money received for doing so would
hopefully enable them to sustain such performance for future seasons, despite
the departure of Perez who has gained them three podiums this season. Sergio
himself had an afternoon to forget however, as he was forced to retiring
following another one of the puncture plagued incidents.
Mercedes car
looked tired in New Delhi getting passed by Hulkenberg’s Force India, Grosjean’s
Lotus and Senna’s Williams, eventually finishing outside the points in P11. They
may yet get punished for not taking advantage of some good early-season pace,
with retirements, penalties and qualifying mistakes aplenty. Perhaps they have,
or if not they should turn their focus to their 2013 car. With the arrival of
Hamilton to partner Rosberg, there is much more to gain next year than there is
to lose in the remaining three races of this year.
As the end
of the field, arguably the number two drivers for each team faired the better
on race day, as Caterham’s Kovalainen was beaten by Petrov, and Pic took the
chequered flag before the well-experienced Timo Glock in the Marussia’s. Local
driver Narain Karthikeyan finished last on the track in 21st, as
there were three retirements in total including his teammate de la Rosa
following HRT’s ongoing break issues.
The
beautiful Abu Dhabi Grand Prix is up next in the latest weekend of back to back
races - let’s hope Alonso can bring the fight to Vettel in qualifying on this
infamously circuit for difficult overtaking.
Please feel free to leave positive or constructive comments on our blogs below, thank you - F1 Hub.
Please feel free to leave positive or constructive comments on our blogs below, thank you - F1 Hub.
Results
1. Vettel
[Red Bull-Renault] 1h:31:10:744
2. Alonso
[Ferrari] + 9.4 seconds
3. Webber [Red
Bull-Renault] +13.2
4. Hamilton [McLaren-Mercedes]
+ 13.9
5. Button [McLaren-Mercedes]
+ 26.2
6. Massa [Ferrari]
+ 44.6
7. Raikkonen
[Lotus-Renault] + 45.2
8.
Hulkenberg [Force India-Mercedes] + 54.9
9. Grosjean [Lotus-Renault]
+ 56.1
10. Senna [Williams-Renault]
+ 74.9
11. Rosberg [Mercedes]
+ 81.6
12. di Resta
[Force India-Mercedes] + 82.8
13.
Ricciardo [Toro Rosso-Ferrari] + 86.0
14.
Kobayashi [Sauber-Ferrari] + 86.4
15. Vergne [Toro
Rosso-Ferrari] + 1 Lap
16.
Maldonado [Williams-Renault] + 1 Lap
17. Petrov [Caterham-Renault]
+ 1 Lap
18.
Kovalainen [Caterham-Renault] + 1 Lap
19. Pic [Marussia-Cosworth]
+ 1 Lap
20. Glock [Marussia-Cosworth]
+ 2 Laps
21.
Karthikeyan [HRT-Cosworth] + 2 Laps
Did Not
Finish
Schumacher [Mercedes]
Lap 55
de la Rosa [HRT-Cosworth]
Lap 42
Perez [Sauber-Ferrari]
Lap 20
Nick, F1 Hub
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