Now that's out of the way, let's talk about the race. Once more, Sebastian Vettel was simply untouchable as he began the race from pole, led every lap and set the fastest lap on the way to an eleventh victory of the season. Once he had negotiated the first sequence of bends without any real challenge from behind, the new world champion was in control throughout despite never being much more than five seconds ahead of runner-up Jenson Button at any stage during the race.
Button had nabbed the position at the start from fourth on the grid after taking advantage of Fernando Alonso running wide at the first corner and the power of his Mercedes engine, which propelled him past Mark Webber down the back straight on the opening lap. The Australian did keep Button honest during the first stint, but the Brit thereafter ran a rather lonely race in second position.
Webber himself lost third position to Alonso after switching to the slower hard compound tyres two laps sooner than his Spanish adversary, and again couldn't find an opportunity to overtake despite hanging on to the coat-tails of the double champion for some time. All-in-all, it was another disappointing race for the Australian after starting on the front row of the grid, all the more so as he lost further ground in the battle for the runner-up spot in the championship.
He didn't lose as much ground as the besieged Lewis Hamilton however. The McLaren driver had already suffered from a three-place grid penalty in qualifying for ignoring yellow flags in practice which left him fifth on the grid before the start of what transpired to be another miserable outing for the 2008 champion. Felipe Massa was able to pass him early on in the race, and after he caught back up to the Brazilian during the second stint, he made yet more contact with his new arch-rival.
Hamilton had a superior exit out the slow right-hand turn 4, and drew alongside Massa on the approach to the following double-apex left-hander. Massa however stuck resolutely to the racing line and the pair collided, damaging Hamilton's front wing and sending Massa into the tarmac run-off. This time though, the stewards ruled that Massa was at fault, and it was he rather than Hamilton who was awarded a drive-through penalty.
This proved to be moot when Massa eventually wrecked his suspension with some over-exuberant kerb-hopping as he had done during the final session of qualifying the previous day, but Hamilton's pace was particularly lacklustre after he pitted to repair the damage. He slipped behind the two Mercedes drivers of Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher, as well as the impressive Jaime Alguersauri for Toro Rosso briefly, but never made even a slight impression on the battling silver cars ahead. He eventually trailed home in seventh.
Schumacher emulated Alonso's tactic of staying on the softer rubber for longer to great effect to leapfrog teammate Rosberg and take a well-deserved fifth place finish, with Alguersauri strengthening his bid to remain at Toro Rosso in 2012 with a solid eighth place behind Hamilton (though it should be noted that Sebastien Buemi was also on course to score points before succumbing to engine failure). Adrian Sutil finished ninth for Force India, whilst the top ten was rounded out by the young Mexican Sergio Perez, who made good use of an alternative strategy to turn a lowly twentieth place on the grid into another hard-earned championship point for Sauber.
The other Sauber of Kamui Kobayashi however was eliminated in a collision at the first corner with Timo Glock, whom he hit after running wide in avoidance of Rubens Barrichello, who in turn had lost his front wing in contact with the sister Williams of Pastor Maldonado. Jarno Trulli was also spun around and given a puncture by returnee Narain Karthikeyan a few corners later, but besides this incident, the Hispania driver drove well to take a creditable seventeeth place in front his adoring home fans.
And home fans there were - the attendance at the all-new Buddh International Circuit far exceeded that of fellow relatively new eastern fixtures China, Turkey and Korea. Unlike the three aforementioned, having two Indian drivers in F1 (Karun Chandhok participated in Friday practice for Lotus but wasn't to race) and an Indian team ensured plenty of interest among the locals. With other new venues having failed to generate any real interest in F1 in themselves, Bernie should take note and ensure that any other prospective newcomers to the F1 calendar have a population sufficiently enthused by the sport to pay to fill the seats in the grandstands.
Apologies once more for the lateness of this post, but be sure to check back next week for a run-down of the hottest talents likely to emerge in F1 in the near future, as well as full coverage of the final two races of the 2011 season at Brazil and Abu Dhabi after that.
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