Vettel dominates Indian GP

Championship leader Sebastian Vettel
produced another commanding
performance to lead all the way and
win the Indian Grand Prix in imperious
fashion.
But his title rival Fernando Alonso also
produced a fine drive, moving up from
fifth on the grid to finish second and
limit his losses to seven points.
However, Vettel now has a 13 point
lead with just three races to go, his
comprehensive victory at the hazy
Buddh International Circuit giving him
four wins in a row for the first time in
his career.
The German won last year's inaugural
Indian Grand Prix and, having started
on pole, he got off to a great start in
his repeat bid, leading Red Bull team
mate Mark Webber by over a second
after lap one.
Operating on a one-stop strategy,
Vettel gradually extended his
advantage to around the 10-second
mark and, although sparks sprayed out
from underneath his car in the closing
laps, that proved to be a false alarm.
The 25-year-old cruised over the line
just over nine seconds clear of Alonso,
becoming the first man since Jenson
Button in 2009 to win four races in a
row, and he is now firmly on course
for a third consecutive drivers'
championship.
Since inheriting the lead from Lewis
Hamilton in Singapore on lap 23, Vettel
has led for every single lap and his
running total of 206 is just 58 short of
the all-time record.
His nearest rival Alonso launched a
superb charge at the start of the race,
getting past Lewis Hamilton on lap one
after an exciting duel between himself
and the McLaren drivers, and then
using his DRS to pass Jenson Button
on lap four.
And he made up another place on lap
48 of the 60, powering past Webber
when the Australian began to suffer
from a loss of KERS boost.
That gave Hamilton hope of a podium
place and he closed the gap on
Webber too but the Red Bull man held
him off by 0.7 of a second to finish
third, while Jenson Button had a fairly
uneventful race, despite clocking the
fastest lap of the day, and came home
in fifth.