NEW DELHI — Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel won the inaugural Formula One Indian Grand Prix on Sunday, staying on track to equal the record for the number of wins in a season.
Vettel led from start to finish, building a comfortable lead and finishing 8.4 seconds ahead of McLaren’s Jenson Button, with Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso a distant third at the Buddh International Circuit.
“All in all it was a smooth race, the car was very well balanced,” Vettel said. “I’m very proud to be the first winner here in India.”
The race saw yet another collision between McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari’s Felipe Massa to intensify their rivalry. Massa was given a pit drive-through penalty before later breaking his front suspension and retiring from the race.
Red Bull’s Mark Webber was fourth, ahead of the Mercedes pair of Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg.
Vettel has 11 wins this season, and victories in the final two races in Brazil and Abu Dhabi would equal Schumacher’s record of 13 wins.
Vettel turned in a flawless performance, leading every lap and posting the fastest lap.
Vettel and his team are not letting up despite already having clinched the drivers’ and constructors’ championships.
“There is no sign of getting lazy and not paying attention to detail, and it’s great to see that,” Vettel said. “All the people come with their questions and we give them the right answers.”
He made his trademark quick start, pushing his lead beyond four seconds after just five laps. Button cut the gap to 2.7 seconds after the second set of pitstops, when both switched to the harder tires, and looked game for mounting a challenge, but could get no closer.
“As soon as Seb got into a rhythm, I had to forget about it really,” Button said. “As a team we did a perfect job … we couldn’t have done anything else.”
Alonso overtook Webber by waiting a little longer for his final pitstop to change to hard tires. The Australian closed within a second of Alonso on the final lap, but the Spaniard held on to claim a podium finish.
“It was a little bit surprising he decided to stop,” Alonso said. “We did two extra laps and were able to overtake him.”
Hamilton was forced to pit with damage after the collision with Massa, and that was enough to push him down to seventh. Massa made it a weekend to forget when he went too hard over a high-speed curb and snapped his front suspension — the same mistake he made in qualifying.
Toro Rosso’s Jaime Alguersuari was eighth, Adrian Sutil was ninth to give Force India points in its home race and Sauber’s Sergio Perez took the final point for 10th after starting 20th on the grid.
Button increased his lead in the fight for second in the championship, moving 13 points ahead of Alonso, with Webber six points further back.
Before the race, all drivers and top team personnel plus Formula One chief Bernie Ecclestone observed a moment of silence on the grid to mark the deaths of IndyCar driver Dan Wheldon and MotoGP rider Marco Simoncelli this month.
“We lost two of our mates,” Vettel said. “It’s a bit mixed emotions today, and my thoughts are with them at this moment.”
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