WITH his win in India last Sunday, Sebastian Vettel placed himself amongst the real greats of the sport.
He has won more championships than Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna, with only two great champions in Jan Manuel Fangio and Michael Schumacher having won more. And he is only 26.
Vettel is the youngest man to win four championships in a row and it looks like he will go on to eclipse the other great German.
Vettel was in a class of his own all weekend in India. He took pole position and rushed off into the lead at the start, but decided to change tyres early on lap two which put him back to 17th position.
He then began to relentlessly carve his way through the field.
Mark Webber was on a different strategy as he had started on medium tyres and it soon turned out that he would be Vettel’s only opposition, albeit for a short while, as the ever so unlucky Webber had his alternator break and he was ordered to stop the car urgently after lap 32.
Fernando Alonso had a very bad weekend and was the only man that could stop Vettel from winning the title. His attempt to do this started poorly when he and Webber collided at the start, damaging Alonso’s front wing and forcing him into the pits for a new one.
After this incident Alonso’s car never seemed to be right and he was unable to do better than his eventual 11th position.
Meanwhile, Vettel was in the lead and cementing his position with no real opposition. Nico Rosberg took the position as the best Mercedes driver this weekend and showed Lewis Hamilton a clean pair of heels, driving into a very well earned second place.
Romain Grosjean drove through the field from 17th on the grid to an eventual third on the podium. Two other teammates who showed up their top drivers were Felipe Massa, who outshone Alonso, and Sergio Perez, who similarly outperformed Jenson Button.
Perez really had the bit between his teeth and at one stage overtook two cars in one passing maneouvre.
Kimi Raikkonen ran out of tyres towards the end and had to fit new ones. This made a huge difference and he left his stamp of approval by getting the fastest lap on the last lap of the race.
Next race will be Abu Dhabi on November 3.
Qualifying at 3pm on Saturday, November 2 and the race on Sunday, November 3 at 3pm.
Race: 1 Sebastian Vettel; 2 Nico Rosberg; 3 Romain Grosjean; 4 Felipe Massa; 5 Sergio Perez; 6 Lewis Hamilton; 7 Kimi Raikkonen; 8 Paul di Resta; 9 Adrian Sutil; 10 Daniel Ricciardo.
Drivers: 1 Sebastian Vettel 322; 2 Fernando Alonso 207; 3 Kimi Raikkonen 183; 4 Lewis Hamilton 169; 5 Mark Webber 148; 6 Nico Rosberg 144; 7 Felipe Massa/Romain Grosjean 102; 9 Jenson Button 60; 10 Paul di Resta 40.
Constructors: 1 Red Bull 470; 2 Mercedes 313; 3 Ferrari 309; 4 Lotus Renault 285; 5 McLaren Mercedes 93; 6 Force India 68; 7 Sauber Ferrari 45; 8 Torro Rosso 32; 9 Williams 1.
