Behind the two Red Bulls the Ferraris made good starts as Alonso got by
Hamilton and Felipe Massa made a move on Kimi Raikkonen for sixth.
But behind them Button, who had started 11th, and Nico Rosberg were already
out of the race.
The pair were clouted by the wayward Sauber of Suzuka hero Kamui Kobayashi at
turn three and went no further, the Japanese driver serving a drive-through
penalty before being forced to park up in the garage.
Vettel quickly began to eke out a lead over Webber as the top six held
position through the first-round of stops.
But this proved to be the start of Hamilton’s woes.
The Briton had failed to do a meaningful long run during practice and soon
found his tyres to be wearing at an alarming rate, and Massa breezed past
him on the run to turn three before he was forced to pit for a second time
several laps earlier than his rivals.
It would have ramifications later on.
Vettel’s was comfortably managing the gap back to Webber, but had tyre
struggles of his own during the latter stages of his second stint, which
meant his team-mate got back within 5.3 seconds.
But once he pitted Vettel quickly reasserted his authority with a lap 1.5
seconds better than his team-mate and the advantage was soon back up to 8.5
seconds.
Meanwhile Hamilton’s tyre woes had returned and it became apparent he would
need to make an extra stop before the end.
He desperately tried to keep Romain Grosjean and Nico Hulkenberg at bay, but
eventually had to give way to the Force India as the German pounced around
the outside at turn four, after Hamilton had run Grosjean out of road at
turn three
At Ferrari, Massa’s excellent pace prompted a request for him to slow up in
order to give team-mate Alonso some breathing space as he kept pace with the
third-placed Spaniard.
Hamilton pitted again on lap 42 for the super-soft tyre and resumed down in
10th place.
It was at this point that Vettel’s cruise to victory was thrown into doubt.
He was advised to cool his pace with eight laps to go as the drivers struggled
with heavy wear on their right-front tyres.
A further warning was issued to the German with five laps to go, while
Hamilton’s woes were compounded as he picked up a loose strip of AstroTurf
under his McLaren which slowed his pace.
Vettel continued to receive increasingly concerned messages from race engineer
Guillaume ‘Rocky’ Rocquelin, but ultimately came through to take the win by
6.8 seconds from Webber and close in on becoming just the third man to win
three straight titles. Juan Manuel Fangio and Michael Schumacher are the
others.
Alonso was a solid third for Ferrari as Massa underlined his recent
improvement with fourth to allow the Italian team to move above McLaren into
second in the constructors’ championship.
Raikkonen was fifth ahead of Hulkenberg, Grosjean and the Toro Rosso pair of
Jean-Eric Vergne and Daniel Ricciardo.
Hamilton salvaged a point for 10th, but will know his chances of leaving
McLaren for Mercedes as a world champion are all but over.
Results:
Leading Final Positions after Race (55 Laps): 1 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red
Bull 1hr 36mins 28.651secs, 2 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull 1:36:36.882, 3
Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari 1:36:42.595, 4 Felipe Massa (Bra) Ferrari
1:36:48.819, 5 Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Lotus F1 Team 1:37:05.390, 6 Nico
Hulkenberg (Ger) Force India 1:37:13.952, 7 Romain Grosjean (Fra) Lotus F1
Team 1:37:23.463, 8 Jean-Eric Vergne (Fra) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:37:38.240,
9 Daniel Ricciardo (Aus) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:37:40.438, 10 Lewis Hamilton
(Gbr) McLaren 1:37:48.343, 11 Sergio Perez (Mex) Sauber-Ferrari 1:37:48.713,
12 Paul di Resta (Gbr) Force India 1:37:53.099, 13 Michael Schumacher (Ger)
Mercedes GP 1:37:57.892, 14 Pastor Maldonado (Ven) Williams 1:38:03.575, 15
Bruno Senna (Bra) Williams 1:38:05.553, 16 Vitaly Petrov (Rus) Caterham at 1
Lap, 17 Heikki Kovalainen (Fin) Caterham at 1 Lap, 18 Timo Glock (Ger)
Marussia at 1 Lap, 19 Charles Pic (Fra) Marussia at 2 Laps, 20 Narain
Karthikeyan (Ind) HRT-F1at 2 Laps
Not Classified: 21 Pedro de la Rosa (Spa) HRT-F1 16 Laps completed, 22 Kamui
Kobayashi (Jpn) Sauber-Ferrari 16 Laps completed, 23 Nico Rosberg (Ger)
Mercedes GP 1 Lap completed, 24 Jenson Button (Gbr) McLaren 0 Laps completed