Vettel Wins Fourth F1 Title

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Sebastian Vettel wrapped up his fourth consecutive drivers' championship in style with a convincing win in Sunday's 2013 Formula 1 Airtel Indian Grand Prix.

The German, whose victory also secured a fourth straight constructors' crown for Red Bull, finished half a minute clear of Mercedes' Nico Rosberg, with Lotus's Romain Grosjean an impressive third having started 17th.

Vettel jumped into the lead at the start of the race, but dropped back through the field after making an early stop to remove the less durable soft tyres. Ferrari’s Felipe Massa then moved ahead followed by the Mercedes duo of Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton, but when they too stopped, the second Red Bull of Mark Webber moved into P1, the Australian having started on the medium-compound rubber. 

Vettel, meanwhile, stormed back through the pack until he was in a position to reclaim the lead from his team mate when Webber was forced to use the soft tyres. When both men had completed all of their stops, Vettel held a 13-second lead over Webber, but the Australian was soon ruled out of contention when an alternator problem forced him to retire.

Vettel was then left with a healthy lead over Lotus’s Kimi Raikkonen, and although Red Bull were nervous of a similar problem to Webber’s afflicting his RB9, the 26-year-old cruised to the chequered flag to record his sixth successive win.

Raikkonen, who had tried an ambitious one-stop strategy, fell back towards the tail end of the race, losing positions to Rosberg and then begrudgingly to team mate Grosjean who’d charged through the field after starting 17th. Massa, McLaren’s Sergio Perez and Hamilton also found their way past Raikkonen as the Finn’s tyres continued to lose performance and in the end he was eventually forced to pit, emerging in seventh where he stayed to the finish.

The top ten was completed by the Force India pair of Paul di Resta and Adrian Sutil in eighth and ninth, and Toro Rosso’s Daniel Ricciardo in tenth.

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Aussie Grit Claims Pole

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Mark Webber claimed his first pole position of the season - and his first since Korea last year - with a superb performance in qualifying in Japan on Saturday afternoon. The Australian got the better of Red Bull team mate Sebastian Vettel, who suffered from intermittent KERS issues in Q3.

Webber had set the pace in Q1 at Suzuka with 1m 32.271s as he took the honours away from Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, who in turn had displaced Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso. But with only a few minutes remaining the session was temporarily red-flagged when Jean-Eric Vergne’s Toro Rosso rolled to a smoky halt at the Degner Curve with its rear brakes on fire. 

After the STR8 had been liberally doused in fire extinguishant the session resumed briefly, giving those who wanted another run just enough time to complete one more timed lap. There was another fire, this time when Esteban Gutierrez got back to his pit and the rear end of his Sauber was briefly set ablaze.

Several runners, notably Lotus’s Romain Grosjean and Ferrari’s Felipe Massa, opted for the medium compound Pirellis and as they jumped to the top of the times with 1m 31.824s and 1m 31.994s respectively, Adrian Sutil paid the price for his FP3 crash and was the first man who failed to get through, with 1m 32.890s. 

Vergne was a sitting duck and dropped to 18th, while Max Chilton did a great job to outqualify the Caterhams. The Englishman lapped his Marussia in 1m 34.320s to Charles Pic’s 1m 34.556s and Giedo van der Garde’s 1m 34.879s. Jules Bianchi did a great job to bang in a lap of 1m 34.958s in his rebuilt Marussia, making the fight between the rival teams closer than it’s been all season.

In Q2 Vettel shaded Webber as he topped the times with 1m 31.290s, while further back McLaren’s Sergio Perez was pipped to a Q3 place as Massa staged a late improvement to sixth place. That left the Mexican on 1m 31.989s just ahead of Paul di Resta on 1m 31.992s for Force India. Valtteri Bottas and Pastor Maldonado were 13th and 15th for Williams with 1m 32.013s and 1m 32.093s respectively, sandwiching Gutierrez on 1m 32.063s. Daniel Ricciardo was 16th on 1m 32.485s in the remaining Toro Rosso.

Webber actually set two times that were quick enough for pole position in Q3; his first lap of 1m 30.975s quicker than Vettel’s two efforts of 1m 31.312s and 1m 31.089s, and his second an improved 1m 30.915s. 

As the Red Bulls wrapped up the front row, Hamilton improved from 10th place to third with his last-gasp lap of 1m 31.253s, moving Grosjean across to the outside of the second row on 1m 31.365s.

Massa once again outgunned Ferrari team mate Alonso, as the Brazilian set the fifth-best time of 1m 31.378s and the Spaniard could only manage 1m 31.665s for eighth. In between them came Nico Rosberg in the other Mercedes on 1m 31.397s and Sauber’s impressive Nico Hulkenberg on 1m 31.644s.

On the fifth row, Kimi Raikkonen recorded 1m 31.684s in the second Lotus to edge ahead of Jenson Button’s 1m 31.827s in the lead McLaren.

Sutil, Pic and Bianchi all have grid penalties; Sutil five places for changing his gearbox after his FP3 crash, and the two Frenchman 10-place penalties apiece for picking up their third reprimands of the season in Korea. That means that the last six drivers on the grid will line up in this order: Vergne, Chilton, Van der Garde, Sutil, Pic and Bianchi.

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Hamilton Fears for F1

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Lewis Hamilton says he fears Formula 1 fans will lose interest in the sport because Sebastian Vettel is so dominant.

Vettel, 26, is on the brink of a fourth consecutive world championship after winning the Korean Grand Prix.

Hamilton said he did not watch races when Michael Schumacher dominated.

"I remember waking up to watch the start of the race then going to sleep and waking up when it ended because I knew what would happen," said Hamilton.

"I am pretty sure a lot of people are doing that today."

Vettel can secure the title at the Japanese Grand Prix on Sunday if he wins at Suzuka and rival Fernando Alonso of Ferrari is lower than eighth.

Fans have repeatedly booed the Germanas he celebrated victories on the podium, but Hamilton, who has fallen to fourth in the standings, insists the Red Bull driver deserves to win the title.

"He has driven well all year," said the 28-year-old. "I've just looked at his points and he has had second, first, second, first all year. He's done the perfect job and he deserves it."

Vettel is 77 points clear of Alonso after winning more than half the races this season and could clinch the championship with four grands prix to go.

He has won eight races, Alonso and Nico Rosberg have won two while Hamilton's only success came at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Vettel's reliability has seen him finish on the podium in two thirds of grands prix for the last four seasons but his best performance was in 2011 when he won 11 of the 19 races from 15 pole positions and only failed to make the podium on two occasions.

In contrast, Hamilton has won 13 races since claiming his only world title in 2008.

Vettel's record is similar to Schumacher's, who won five world titles between 2000 and 2004, winning 48 of 85 grands prix.

But Red Bull team principal Christian Horner believes he deserves to be ranked alongside the greatest drivers of all time.

"He has to be right up there - he has to be," said Horner.

"The level he is performing at is unbelievable in many respects.

"We know Mark [Webber, Red Bull team-mate] is a very talented and quick racing driver and matching him against that, he has been hugely impressive.

"What has been really impressive is he has continued to grow and improve as he has gained more experience, and to have won the ratio of races he has is remarkable."

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