2013 Indian GP: Vettel crowned champion for the fourth time in a row

Sebastian Vettel won the 2013 Indian GP at the Buddh International Circuit from pole position, becoming world champion for the fourth time in a row. Behind the Red Bull driver, Nico Rosberg of Mercedes finished second, around 29 seconds back according to Wikipedia. Third place went to Romain Grosjean of Lotus F1, who had started from 17th on the grid. The race was decided in the pits: Vettel came off the soft tyres after just the second lap, then worked his way through the field and led from lap 33 to the finish.

Pirelli had brought the medium and soft compounds. The soft tyres degraded very quickly in India. Vettel kept the lead at the start, while Felipe Massa in the Ferrari had already moved up from 5th on the grid to 2nd on the opening lap, according to Wikipedia. At the second corner, Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber made contact. The Spaniard's Ferrari lost its front wing.

Vettel pitted at the end of lap 2 and switched to mediums. Three laps later he was down in 15th. Massa took the lead on lap 3. After his stop on lap 8, Webber led from lap 9. The Australian had started on mediums and therefore stayed out for a long time. Vettel, meanwhile, fought his way past the cars that had yet to stop and was quicker than his team can have been comfortable with. After Webber's first stop on lap 28, Vettel led from lap 29 and changed tyres once more on lap 31. That briefly handed the lead back to Webber on lap 32, but he then came in for his mandatory stint on softs. From lap 33 Vettel was back in front, and the race at the front was effectively over.

Red Bull could have had a one-two, but Webber parked his car after 39 laps while running 2nd. The cause was a faulty alternator. He is listed in the results as a retirement in 20th, 16 places behind his 4th grid position. Nobody lost more places that day.

Nico Hülkenberg retired his Sauber after 54 laps with a technical failure. According to Wikipedia, he had gearbox and brake problems. Because he had completed more than 90 per cent of the distance, he was still classified 19th. Charles Pic of Caterham retired after 35 laps with a hydraulics failure. His team-mate Giedo van der Garde did not make it past the first lap after a collision. Our sources do not say who he collided with.

Grosjean had been knocked out in Q1 in qualifying on medium tyres. That is exactly what paid off now: he started on fresh softs, made his only stop as late as lap 13 and then ran 47 laps on mediums. Having gained 14 places, he was the big winner of the day.

Kimi Räikkönen, by contrast, had a bitter afternoon. He switched to mediums as early as lap 7 and aimed to run the remaining 53 laps on them. According to RaceFans, his tyres degraded so badly in the last ten laps that he could barely defend himself. He also complained of overheating brakes. When his team-mate closed in on fresher tyres, Räikkönen refused to let him by and, according to a Crash.net report, even forced him off the track. RaceFans says this cost Grosjean around 2.5 seconds on lap 56. Räikkönen and the pit wall clashed heatedly over the radio. Grosjean said afterwards: “We could have lost two cars.” (Crash.net)

On lap 58 Räikkönen was running 5th and made a second stop for new tyres. That allowed him to set the fastest lap of the race on the final lap, a 1:27.679 (according to RaceFans), and he finished seventh. No bonus points were awarded for it in 2013.

• Felipe Massa led for a while and finished fourth, one place better than his grid position.
• Sergio Pérez started 9th for McLaren on mediums and moved up to 5th. His team-mate Jenson Button had to pit three times and finished a lap down in 14th.
• Lewis Hamilton dropped from 3rd on the grid to 6th for Mercedes, while Rosberg finished second.
• Force India scored points with both cars in front of their home crowd: Paul di Resta was eighth, Adrian Sutil ninth on a one-stop strategy.
• Daniel Ricciardo secured a point for Toro Rosso in tenth.
• Fernando Alonso was the big loser among the title contenders. After the wing damage he had to pit as early as lap 2. He stopped three times in total and finished eleventh, out of the points.
• Pastor Maldonado went from 18th on the grid to 12th for Williams. It was not enough for points.

After the race, Vettel had 322 points in the 2013 standings, with Alonso second on 207. The 115-point gap could no longer be closed in the three remaining races. Räikkönen (183) stayed third ahead of Hamilton (169), Webber (148) and Rosberg (144). Grosjean, on 102 points, moved past Massa, who had the same number of points, and was now seventh.

The teams' battle was settled too: Red Bull were well clear on 470 points ahead of Mercedes (313) and Ferrari (309) and won the constructors' championship for the fourth time in a row.

It was Vettel's tenth win of the season. After Juan Manuel Fangio, Alain Prost and Michael Schumacher, he was only the fourth driver with at least four titles. Only Fangio and Schumacher had won four titles in a row before him. He celebrated with donuts on the start/finish straight. The stewards issued a reprimand as a result, and Red Bull had to pay 25,000 euros. However, it was not the donuts themselves that were penalised, but the fact that Vettel had not driven straight to parc fermé.