Sealing a fourth consecutive title this weekend at India was never going to be a particularly tall order for Sebastian Vettel given the enormous 90 point advantage he possessed heading into the weekend.
In order for the title chase to have continued to Abu Dhabi, two things had to happen. Firstly, Fernando Alonso, Vettel's only remaining theoretical rival, had to finish in the top two, which he hasn't even looked close to doing at the last two races.
Secondly, Vettel himself had to finish outside the top five, which he hasn't done all year barring the one race at Silverstone where he retired from the lead with gearbox trouble.
Nevertheless, Vettel was in absolutely no mood to play the percentages. He hadn't celebrated a title victory with a race win since that surreal evening at Abu Dhabi three years ago and clearly wanted to make that right this weekend. Taking pole position by a mammoth seven tenths of a second on Saturday was the first step towards achieving this.
The second step was working out the optimum strategy on a weekend where the option tyre was expected to fall apart in just a handful of laps, potentially handing those who qualified on primes - including a certain Mark Webber - a tactical advantage.
Having got away cleanly from pole position, Red Bull defied expectation by bringing in Vettel at the end of the second lap of the race. This decision initially seemed rather left-field, even an unnecessary risk, but it soon transpired to be a tactical masterstroke.
Though Vettel re-joined the track down in 17th, he was in relatively clean air with all those that also started on options, who made up the vast majority of the cars ahead, due to pit within a few laps.
What's more, Webber had made a relatively poor start, dropping from fourth on the grid to sixth and crucially losing time behind slower rivals and thus squandering his advantage.
Webber moved into first place at the end of lap eight as interim leader Felipe Massa - who had passed the Red Bull as well as both Mercedes drivers in a storming first few corners - dived for the pits.
By this stage, Vettel was already back up into sixth place, which became third by lap 13 after passes on the yet-to-stop cars of Adrian Sutil, Romain Grosjean and Daniel Ricciardo.
Just 14 seconds now separated Webber and Vettel - nowhere near enough for the Australian to remain in the lead after a pit-stop. The race was therefore already in the bag for the champion-elect even at this early stage.
Having passed another driver yet to make their first stop, Sergio Perez, on lap 21, Vettel was now up into second place and less than 12 seconds adrift of Webber. The Australian finally made his first stop on lap 28, opting for a short second stint on option tyres, Vettel consequently re-taking the lead.
Both Red Bull drivers made their second stops on consecutive laps - Vettel from the lead for a fresh set of prime tyres on lap 31 and then Webber the following lap for another set of primes after his brief flirtation with the options. The German now held an advantage of 12 seconds over his teammate.
A second Red Bull one-two in a row was however derailed by an alternator failure for the perennially unlucky Webber, who was forced to park his stricken car on lap 40.
This immediately caused concern on the pit-wall that Vettel's car may not go the distance, but in the event the 26-year-old was able to reel off the remaining 20 laps without drama.
A tenth victory of the season, and a sixth in a row were plenty sufficient to guarantee Vettel a richly-deserved fourth championship crown that puts him level with the legendary Alain Prost and only three away from compatriot Michael Schumacher - whose record of seven titles now seems far from untouchable.
The battle for the remaining podium places behind Vettel was an intriguing one, with various drivers on differing tyre strategies crossing paths as the race approached its climax.
At the point at which Webber was forced to retire, Kimi Raikkonen's Lotus was running in second place but seemingly on the verge of making a second pit-stop having previously pitted on lap seven.
But, as the lap counter ticked down, it became clear that Lotus were aiming to try and get the 'Iceman' to the end of the race without making any further stops.
Just behind was Sutil, who had started on medium tyres and hadn't pitted all race. When he finally pitted to make the mandatory switch to options on lap 41, Nico Rosberg, who had started the race alongside Vettel on the front row, moved up to third behind Raikkonen.
Next up was Romain Grosjean, up to fourth from 17th on the grid having made his sole stop on lap 13, erstwhile leader Massa, who dropped back behind Rosberg at the second phase of pit-stops, the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and Perez, who by now had come into the pits for a second time.
All of these drivers were catching Raikkonen, who would evidently struggle to go the distance on his severely worn tyres. Rosberg was able to close down a 10 second deficit to the Finn in as many laps, making the inevitable pass on lap 52 at turn 4 and going to claim a well-earned second place, his first podium finish since his Silverstone victory.
After another couple of laps, Grosjean had caught up to his struggling teammate, but Raikkonen seemed reluctant to let the Frenchman by. The pair almost made contact as Grosjean attempted a move around the outside at turn 4 on lap 56, Raikkonen finally conceding the position at the end of that lap following a somewhat blunt radio message from Alan Permane.
While Grosjean made it a hat-trick of podium finishes with third, Massa swiftly made his way past his former Ferrari teammate Raikkonen to take a creditable fourth place.
Perez then killed two birds with one stone as he slipstreamed his way past both Hamilton, who was also struggling with rear tyre wear, and Raikkonen to move into fifth - the best finish of his McLaren career so far and equal to the team's best result of the year.
Hamilton came home sixth in a disappointing outing for the Brit that saw him outclassed by teammate Rosberg, with Raikkonen making a late pit-stop and having to settle for seventh. Completing the points-scorers were Paul Di Resta, his Force India teammate Sutil and Daniel Ricciardo's Toro Rosso.
The latter was forced to defend in the closing stages from Alonso, who suffered a nightmare race. Poised for a good result starting on prime tyres, the Ferrari driver made contact first with Webber and then Jenson Button on the first lap, which caused the Spaniard to pit for a change of front wing.
Alonso never really recovered from this setback, struggling to an eventual 11th place finish with a damaged car. Behind him finished Pastor Maldonado's Williams, Jean-Eric Vergne in the second Toro Rosso and Button, who similarly failed to claw back much ground after the first lap contact with Alonso, which gave him a puncture, in a dismal afternoon.
Next up were Esteban Gutierrez, who was brought back to earth with a drive-through penalty for jumping the start after his breakthrough first points finish at Suzuka, Valtteri Bottas and the Marussia duo of Max Chilton and Jules Bianchi.
Nico Hulkenberg was a late retirement with brake failure having been on course for eighth place, whilst Giedo van der Garde was eliminated after first corner contact with Chilton and teammate Pic, who retired some laps later with a hydraulic failure.
After the race, it was refreshing to see Vettel receive the adulation he deserves from the passionate Indian crowd after several unsavoury episodes of booing earlier in the year. Despite continued doubts from some quarters, Vettel has quite simply done a sterling job of maximising the machinery at his disposal this season - he can't be blamed for doing what every driver in the field ultimately aims to do.
As brilliant as it would be to see his talents given a more stern test by inferior machinery or a teammate of the calibre of Alonso or Hamilton, all we can do is watch and admire for the time being as he continues to reel off the victories. Whether Vettel can be considered an all-time great is no longer in doubt; time will only tell his place among the sport's other legends.
No comments:
Post a Comment