F1: Vettel clinches fourth title as Alonso is plagued with problems

Sebastian Vettel drove a close to flawless race in the Indian Grand Prix to take his fourth consecutive title. He joins an elite club of only 3 to achieve 4 world titles. In order to extend the championship fight, Alonso had to finish on the top 2 steps of the podium. It seemed highly unlikely that he would finish anywhere near the top 3 though, with a poor qualifying performance. The race was less than ideal for him as well. After losing a place at the start, Mark Webber’s RB9 bounced off Kimi Raikkonen’s E21 and into Alonso’s F138, damaging his front wing and obliberating his strategy. While all this was going on, Vettel slowly inched ahead. Alonso suffered from left front suspension damage, but was still able to continue the race. He had to pit for a new front wing almost 20 laps early, resigning him to the last few positions for the majority of the race. Vettel pitted extremely early too. After less than 5 laps, the German pulled into the pits to get rid of the rapidly blistering options in favour of the longer lasting primes. While that happened, Webber took the lead of the Indian Grand Prix, the first time anyone else other than Vettel led a lap in New Delhi. Vettel had to then climb back up the pack to P1, battling with cars and drivers on differing strategies. Most were dispatched by Vettel very quickly, though his future teammate and current Toro Rosso driver Daniel Riccardo put up a bit of a fight. Eventually, his strategy played out, pulling out a gap of over 26 seconds with less than 1/3 race distance to go. He won the Indian Grand Prix, and clinched his fourth title. Alonso ended up P11 after a race filled with drama.To celebrate his victory, Vettel ignored the usual post race procedure and did a couple of donuts in front of the pit straight, an act that cost the team 25,000 euros in fines.Pictures used for illustration purposes only.

OneShift Editorial Team

29 Oct 2013

Share

Tweet

Post