History awaits Red Bull’s German driver at Indian Grand Prix today
The notice board at the media centre of the Buddh International Circuit reads, Sebastian Vettel will be available for a media session at a 16.00 HRS if he is not a part of the customary post-qualifying press conference of the top three racers of the day.
That ‘if’ has never happened in India and it stays that way for now as the Red Bull driver breezed past everyone else to take his third consecutive pole for the third edition of the Indian Grand Prix here on Saturday and bettered his own lap record. On the previous two occasions, he led every lap from start to finish and won the event.
One part of that would happen during race day on Sunday as the German earned the front spot on Saturday during the qualification stage with a timing of 1.24.119, beating his nearest rival by 0.7 seconds.
If he goes on to do the other part, Vettel will be crowned the world champion for a fourth consecutive time. And, it seems his crowning glory is destined for India because the second-best driver on the standings, Fernando Alonso of Ferrari, starts only eighth with his best lap of 1.24.885. The difference between the two men is of 90 points — 297 and 207 respectively — with four races to go and even a fifth finish for the Red Bull driver would be enough for the championship.
“I really like this circuit, especially the middle sector. I really like the flow of the track. So far it’s been a brilliant weekend,” Vettel said after his performance.
And, he did agree that the world title was on the mind. “I’m trying not to think about it. Obviously it’s difficult if every second person asks you the same question. We’ve done pretty well in the past, focussing on every single step and I don’t see reason why to change things for tomorrow or the next couple of races,” he added.
His performance, coupled with the talk later, means ominous signs for anyone else.
From where he starts on Sunday, Vettel can see the championship and stopping him may not be on the cards even for Mercedes Petronas twins Nico Rosberg and lewis Hamilton, who start second and third with 1.24.871 and 1.24.941 respectively, followed by the retiring Mark Webber of the Red Bull with 1.25.047.
SECOND SPOT UP FOR GRABS
While Red Bull remains at the top of the constructors’ championship (445 points) also, the second spot is the one which has become the business area. Currently, Ferrari occupies it with 297 points while Mercedes are third with 287, followed by lotus at 261 with four races to go in the season.
Interestingly, both Mercedes drivers will start ahead of Ferrari ones — Alonso and Felipe Massa at fifth — and will have a real chance of a second place going into Abu Dhabi race next.
Kimi Raikkonen of lotus starts sixth and can push his future teammate Alonso for the second spot in the drivers’ standings as presently a 40-point difference separates the two. In-form Hamilton is fourth with 161 and a positive India finish would also boost his chances.
Rosberg, who’ll start with Vettel in the front row but just behind, said that the team would push their limit. “I’m completely on a knife’s edge, really pushing the limits this weekend just trying to extract that little tenth more out of the car. Qualifying second is better than what I had hoped for,” the German said.
On Saturday, the tyre strategy adopted by some teams was to go with medium ones while others chose the soft ones like Vettel as against Webber and Alonso going with medium ones. The reason was high degradation levels experienced during practice on Friday. like Red Bull, Ferrari chose the split strategy with Massa going with soft compound.
The 2005 and 2006 world champion Alonso believes his strategy has a 50 per cent chance of being successful and it might come down to Webber and him come Sunday.
“If we have the pace and the car is responding well like during qualification and if the soft tyres have some problems and the people start pitting and going into heavy traffic, maybe the race win will be between Webber and me. If the soft tyres are lasting longer than expected and they go much longer in the first stint it will be difficult to recover places. So it’s not in the strategy’s hands, it’s in the coin because no one knows how the soft tyres will behave.” The Spaniard explained.
While there are no Indian drivers in the Indian GP, the only Indian connect in the form of Vijay Mallya owned team Sahara Force India would have its strategy simple, get the better of Sauber to retain the number six spot.
Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg, he was with Force India last year ironically, did give Paul di Resta and Adrian Sutil some challenge for Sunday as he starts seventh while Force India ones would be 12th and 13th respectively, on the grid. Sauber’s other driver Esteban Guiterrez would be 16th.
17 points separate the two teams and Force India ahead are ahead with 62 but the team hasn’t won a single point in the last two races and just three in the last seven. Indian origin’s Monisha Kaltenborn led Sauber on the other hand, have earned 16 points from the last two races in South Korea and Japan respectively. With the obvious connect, there might not be a better place than Greater Noida for Force India to finally get back among the points.
“They are the ones who are behind us on points so they would be under pressure,” Force India’s Adrian Sutil said.
HISTORY IN THE MAKINGIJ
In 2011, Vettel came to India for the inaugural GP but had already become the world champion before the race. When he came last year, he was just six points ahead of Alonso and the championship was far from over. In 2013, he’s back and is on the verge of a fourth world title in the row. If he wins on Sunday, he would be the third man in Formula One history after Juan Manuel Fangio — between 1954 to 1957 — and Michael Schumacher — between 2000 to 2004 (only one to five in a row) — to do it and the best part would be that he does it in India.