He drifted his RB9 in circles till smoke bellowed from it and then bent before his mean machine, head lowered like in a prayer. That was Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel celebrating his third consecutive Indian Grand Prix win on Sunday.
The emotion followed him as he got atop his machine, punching his arms into the air and going all the way to the spectator barrier at the Main Grand Stand of the Buddh International Circuit, taking his glove off and throwing it into the fan gallery. The German was ecstatic, he didn’t care about protocol.
After all, he had just won the race which crowned him the world champion driver for the fourth time in a row. Only two men in the history of Formula One — Juan Manuel Fangio and Michael Schumacher — have done this before him.
“It’s (India) a pretty special place to win the championship,” Vettel said after his superlative performance.
The race, flagged-off by boxing champion MC Mary Kom, belonged to the driver and his team Red Bull who won a fourth constructors title in a row with the result. It was also Vettel’s tenth victory this year from 17 races.
Going into the race at pole position and knowing that even a fifth position would give him the world title; Vettel was dominant for most part of the race. Though he did not have a start to finish lead like in 2011 and 2012, a solid performance while maintaining the pressure saw him through this year.
The 2013 edition of the Indian GP began under dramatic circumstances as right in the beginning of the race, second-placed driver Fernando Alonso of Ferrari, collided into Mclaren’s Jenson Button. That took Alonso almost out of the race with the last year’s runners-up finishing a disappointing 11th.
Then, Vettel took his first pit-stop in the second lap itself which took 24 seconds and Ferrari’s other driver Felipe Massa got into the lead. He led up to the eighth lap when he took his pit-stop as Red Bull’s other driver Mark Webber took the first spot.
Webber also got his car hit in the very first lap which slowed him down a bit but recovered soon. He led till the 28th lap when he took a pit-stop only for Vettel to get ahead for a brief period.
Vettel and Webber ‘s second pit-stops at 31st and 32nd laps saw an exchange of the top spot but after which it was all Vettel. He was, as always is, the man to beat and he kept bettering his timing at an average speed of 202.130 kmph over each of the 60 laps of the 5.12km BIC. Webber couldn’t finish the race due to a mechanical problem.
When he finished the race in 1.31.12.187 seconds, to the roar of just over a half-filled circuit (capacity is one lakh), the 26-year old was almost 30 seconds faster than second-placed Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg.
lotus’ Romain Grosjean was third. Massa finished fourth ahead of Mclaren’s Sergio Perez while Mercedes’
other driver lewis Hamilton stood sixth.
Sunday’s results meant that Mercedes had overtaken Ferrari in the constructors’ championship to take the second spot. lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen, who stood seventh, closed-in on the gap on Alonso for the second spot, 207 and 183 points respectively with three races to go in the season. Vettel has 322.
There was good news for team principal Vijay Mallya’s Sahara Force India as both his drivers, Paul di Resta and Adrian Sutil, earned two and four points, respectively, by coming a commendable eighth and ninth. The team had not earned a single point in the last two races and, therefore, broke a lean patch at BIC. They now have a cushion of 23 points for the sixth spot over team Sauber who couldn’t earn a point.
F1 gives India a miss in 2014 and its future is dark but millions of motorsports fans in the country would be happy because even if it’s ending, it has ended in an incredible Vettel fashion.