Since inheriting the lead from Hamilton in Singapore on lap 23 when the
27-year-old’s car suffered a gearbox failure, Vettel has led every single
lap since.
Vettel’s running total is now 206 after lights-to-flag wins in Japan, Korea
and India, leaving him just 58 adrift of the all-time record set by Ayrton
Senna.
More importantly, of course, Vettel is closing in on becoming a three-time
champion ahead of Alonso, and but for some sort of failure or incident over
the final three races, it seems improbable anyone can stop him.
There was no danger off the line, certainly not from team-mate Webber
alongside him following a third consecutive front-row lock-out from Red
Bull, the first in their history.
The battle, instead, saw Alonso, Hamilton and Jenson Button dice
wheel-to-wheel for the places behind, which was as enthralling as the action
got because there was precious little to entertain afterward.
Come the end of that first lap Hamilton had lost two places, dropping from
third to fifth as Button and Alonso diced their way by.
It did not take too long for Alonso to make a move on Button, with Hamilton
doing likewise shortly after.
Given how easily the McLarens were at the mercy of Alonso over those opening
laps, the suggestion was the Woking-based marque had erred as to their gear
ratios to assist with top speed on the straights.
With the running order Vettel, Webber, Alonso, Hamilton, it remained that way
for 43 laps until a KERS issue affected the second of the two Red Bulls.
Webber radioed in at one stage that he had no KERS, the power-boost system,
only to be told it would return by his engineer.
It did eventually, but not soon enough as Alonso took second on lap 45, and,
whilst Hamilton closed in, he ran out of laps as he trailed by 0.6secs come
the death.
The minor placings went to Button, Ferrari’s Felipe Massa, with Kimi Raikkonen
seventh in his Lotus, the Finn now 67 points adrift.
Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg was eighth, followed by Romain Grosjean in his
Lotus and Williams’ Bruno Senna.
Michael Schumacher, soon to be retiring for a second time, suffered a first
corner puncture after a minor collision with Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne.
That dropped him to the back of the field, with embarrassment to follow as the
seven-times champion is under investigation for ignoring blue flags, waved
to backmarkers to allow the leaders by.
Following a second successive win in India, Vettel said: “Everything has
been incredible, from getting pole on Saturday to winning the race on
Sunday.
“I don’t know what it is about this circuit, but I really like the flow
of it.
“A big thanks to the team. Every single person is pushing very hard,
we’re all working hand-in-hand together, either at the track or back at the
factory in Milton Keynes, and that makes the difference.”
Vettel, however, dismissed the notion he had one hand on the title, adding: “If
you think about the world championship this is a good step for us.
“But we’ve a long way to go, and we’ve seen how quickly things can
change.
“I’m just very proud and very happy. Now we have to focus on Abu Dhabi
next week. We just have to take it step by step.”
Alonso, though, will not rest as he said: “It’s not easy at the moment
fighting Red Bull, but we will never give up.
“We’re happy today. We lost minimum points, which was the plan because we
were not quick enough, but better races will come.
“I’m sure we will do it.”
Webber was happy enough with third, despite his struggles towards the end, as
he said: “I enjoyed the fight.
“It was difficult for me to get into a rhythm, I had a few issues to
manage inside the car, and it was a tough old GP.
“Lewis and Fernando were very strong on the hard tyre, and without KERS
it was difficult, but I was happy with the way I drove.”
How they finished:
1 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull 1hr 31mins 10.744secs, 2 Fernando Alonso
(Spa) Ferrari 1:31:20.181, 3 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull 1:31:23.961, 4 Lewis
Hamilton (Gbr) McLaren 1:31:24.653, 5 Jenson Button (Gbr) McLaren
1:31:37.010, 6 Felipe Massa (Bra) Ferrari 1:31:55.418, 7 Kimi Raikkonen
(Fin) Lotus F1 Team 1:31:55.971, 8 Nico Hulkenberg (Ger) Force India
1:32:05.742, 9 Romain Grosjean (Fra) Lotus F1 Team 1:32:06.847, 10 Bruno
Senna (Bra) Williams 1:32:25.719, 11 Nico Rosberg (Ger) Mercedes GP
1:32:32.438, 12 Paul di Resta (Gbr) Force India 1:32:33.559, 13 Daniel
Ricciardo (Aus) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:32:36.808, 14 Kamui Kobayashi (Jpn)
Sauber-Ferrari 1:32:37.239, 15 Jean-Eric Vergne (Fra) Scuderia Toro Rosso at
1 Lap, 16 Pastor Maldonado (Ven) Williams at 1 Lap, 17 Vitaly Petrov (Rus)
Caterham at 1 Lap, 18 Heikki Kovalainen (Fin) Caterham at 1 Lap, 19 Charles
Pic (Fra) Marussia at 1 Lap, 20 Timo Glock (Ger) Marussia at 2 Laps, 21
Narain Karthikeyan (Ind) HRT-F1 at 2 Laps, 22 Michael Schumacher (Ger)
Mercedes GP at 5 Laps
Not Classified: 23 Pedro de la Rosa (Spa) HRT-F1 42 Laps completed, 24 Sergio
Perez (Mex) Sauber-Ferrari 20 Laps completed