Formula 1 - Indian Grand Prix 2013

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Vettel does everything right in strategy poker and wins the world championship again

It was a race marked by strategic surprises and unwelcome defects in the constant smog of Delhi at the Indian Grand Prix.

Vettel on pole next to Rosberg and his fiercest rival Alonso started on hard tires from 8th place on the grid. Hamilton got away well and tried to overtake between Vettel and Rosberg in the middle, but the two closed the door on him. Alonso touched a competitor in front of him in the first corner and this damaged the front of his Ferrari. Vettel took 2.4 seconds off his pursuers on the first lap and it looked like a familiar start-finish victory. But a sudden radio call of "Box,Box" led to a surprise change to the hard tires as early as lap 2, with Alonso following suit and also picking up a new front. This premature pit stop threw the two back to 17th and 19th place. In the meantime, to the astonishment of the spectators, Massa overtook the two Mercedes drivers without much effort and put Ferrari in the lead. Alonso inquired about the condition of his car on lap 6. The team radioed him back: " at moment car is ok!" It was now the turn of the other drivers to make their first pit stops. Massa had an 18-second lead over Vettel and made the pit stop on lap 8, but the lead was not enough and the Heppenheimer passed Massa for 6th place, with Massa following in 9th. By lap 12, Vettel was already overtaking Grosjean and had by now moved up to 4th place. Alonso was still in 16th place. And that made the difference between the opponents very clear.

After the first period there was an unexpected picture in the classification
The different tire strategies led to surprising rankings. On lap 22, Mark Webber led by about 12 seconds from Vettel. Perez (3rd), Ricciardo(4th), Sutil (5th),Massa (6th), Rosberg(7th), Hamilton (8th) and Räikkönen (11th) with already more than 40 seconds distance followed them. Alonso, meanwhile, was 13th. The duels at the back were often more interesting than the changes at the top. Rosberg, for example, overtook Massa's Ferrari on lap 24, but the latter passed the Mercedes driver right back. The next pit stops took place on laps 28 to 32. Alonso switched to the soft tires in order to catch up. But that also meant he had to come in again, because the soft tires only lasted about 17 laps. Sebastian Vettel switched to the hard tires on lap 31, and since he was running the soft tires on lap 1, that meant he didn't have to come in again. Two laps later, the Red Bull team made its German driver aware that the tires would have to last for the entire stint (race segment), meaning until the end. Teammate Webber was also called to calm down with a "we can't get crazy!". Both tried to drive out the fastest lap.

Unpredictable events and surprises were the rule at this race
But what bad luck and not the first time this year happened to the Australian. Four laps later after the previous announcement came the next radio message: "Stop the car, stop the car, alternator.....!" Webber didn't want to believe it at first, after it seemed for a long time that he could win the race. But he then stopped with a defective alternator. Vettel was informed of his colleague's fate over the radio. Sutil on Force India drove in 3rd position for a long time due to the one-stop strategy and picked up the soft tires at the only pit stop on lap 42. Meanwhile, due to Webber's retirement, Vettel was back in the lead ahead of Raikkonen (+25 sec.), Rosberg (+8 sec.), Grosjean, Massa and Hamilton. On lap 46, Nico Rosberg set the fastest lap with 1:28.915 min. He knew that he could catch up with Raikkonen. Two laps later, Raikkonen received the instruction: "save fuel! And that made it even more difficult for the Finn to secure a podium position. Grosjean made up almost 7 seconds on his stablemate from lap 49 to 54, and the question was how long it would take for Raikkonen to be overtaken and pushed out of second place. Alonso, meanwhile, struggled behind Ricciardo and remained stuck in 11th place. One lap later, Sauber's Hülkenberg had to retire for technical reasons on lap 56. On the same lap, Grosjean had to be passed back by Raikkonen because he failed to control his temper and passed his teammate outside the markings in a corner. Rosberg had already passed the Finn earlier and secured second place. Hamilton and Perez also caught up with the Finn, and with a lucky maneuver Perez grabbed both at once. Meanwhile, Sebastian Vettel was on his final lap and won the Indian Grand Prix in impressive fashion. Overjoyed, the German put on a show for the spectators, spinning his Red Bull in circles for a few laps and letting the tires smoke in front of the grandstand on the start-finish straight. He jumped on his car, bounced around on it for joy and posed in victory. He then ran towards the grandstand and smeared his gloves into the audience from the fence. After that he hurriedly moved to the award ceremony. After the award ceremony, the obligatory interview was held by ex-driver David Coulthard. Asked about his state of mind, the new world champion said: "Thank you on the crowd and it's a shame we don't race here next year! Grosjean, who didn't even reach Q2 in qualifying and therefore started the race from 17th on the grid, said to Coulthard's question if he had expected to be standing here: " I wouldn't have bet a penny on it!" It was a race marked by luck and bad luck in strategy and technology, which had led to this classification. In the next races, the battle will be fought for the places at the back, who will be runner-up in the world championship and who will be second in the constructors' championship.

Ranking list Indian Grand Prix 2013

1 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing-Renault 60 25
2 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 60 +29.8 sec. 18
3 Romain Grosjean Lotus 60 +39.8 sec. 15
4 Felipe Massa Ferrari 60 +41.6 sec. 12
5 Sergio Perez McLaren 60 +43.8 sec. 10
6 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 60 +52.4 sec. 8
7 Kimi Raikkonen Lotus 60 +67.9 sec. 6
8 Paul di Resta Force India 60 +72.8 sec. 4
9 Adrian Sutil Force India 60 +74.7 sec. 2
10 Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso 60 +76.2 sec. 1
11 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 60 +78.2 sec.
12 Pastor Maldonado Williams 60 +78.9 sec.
13 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 59 +1 lap
14 Jenson Button McLaren 59 +1 lap
15 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber 59 +1 lap
16 Valtteri Bottas Williams 59 +1 lap
17 Max Chilton Marussia 58 +2 laps
18 Jules Bianchi Marussia 58 +2 laps
19 Nico Hülkenberg Sauber 54 +6 laps
Out of service
Mark Webber Red Bull Racing 39 +21 laps
Charles Pic Caterham 35 +25 laps
Giedo van der Garde Caterham 1 +59 laps