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Vettel dominates Indian Grand Prix
Sebastian Vettel started the Indian Grand Prix from the pole position and never looked back. Leading from start to finish, Vettel dominated the weekend with pole position, fastest lap and the win.
Vettel jumped into the lead at the start with Red Bull Racing teammate Mark Webber sliding into second followed by McLaren’s Jenson Button in third. In what would turn out to be one of the day’s few passes for position among the leaders, Button passed Webber for second place before the end of the first lap of the race. At the end of the first lap it was Vettel, Button, Webber, Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa.
Though the leaders got off to a clean start, things did not go so well back in the back as the two Williams cars driven by Rubens Barrichello and Pastor Maldonado made contact going into the first turn causing several cars to spin and ending the day for Timo Glock.
By lap 5 Vettel had built up a 3.3 second lead over Button who was battling with Webber for second place. Webber was able to retake second from Button on lap 9.
The first round of pit stops began on lap 17 with Webber, Lewis Hamilton and Alonso all pitting. Vettel finally pitted on lap 20 and the post pit stop top five were Vettel, Webber, Button, Alonso and Massa.
On lap 23 Massa got wide coming out of turn one and sixth place Lewis Hamilton was able to close up on Massa. The two began to battle for the lead and on lap 24 Hamilton made a move on Massa going into a tight left hand turn. Hamilton dove under Massa going into the turn and managed to have his front wheels equal with the mid-section of Massa’s Ferrari. Massa refused to give Hamilton any room and came down on Hamiton’s McLaren. The two cars made contact with the right front wing of Hamilton’s car hitting the left rear of the Ferrari. Hamilton’s front wing was damaged forcing Hamilton to the pits. Massa spun but was able to continue without losing position.
On lap 30 race officials penalized Massa for causing an avoidable accidentand the Ferrari diver was forced to serve a drive-thru penalty.
“I simply stayed on the ideal line, braking on the limit and staying on the part of the track that was rubbered in. What else could I do?” Said Massa. “It’s the umpteenth time that Hamilton runs into me this year and now it seems it’s some sort of fatal attraction.”
Hamilton though took no blame for the incident. “The contact with Felipe [Massa] was just one of those things. I really didn’t feel like I was at fault – it was a racing incident. On the grid, just before the one minute’s silence [to remember Dan Wheldon and Marco Simoncelli, tragically killed whiled racing recently], he and I were standing next to each other and I put my arm around him and told him: ‘Have a great race today.’ I’ve still got great respect for him.”
At the halfway point in the 60 lap race Vettel had a 3.3 second lead over Button, Webber, Alonso and Massa.
Massa’s day went from bad to worse on lap 34 when his left front suspension collapsed after going over a curb ending the Ferrari driver’s day.
With ten laps to go the last round of pit stops was completed with Vettel having a 2.7 second lead over Button, Alonso, Webber and Michael Schumacher.
Vettel cruised through the last laps of the race taking the checkered flag 5.6 seconds ahead of Button. Alonso, Webber, Schumacher and Nico Rosberg filled out the top six.
“The car is fantastic,” Vettel said after the race in the official FIA press conference. “The team is enjoying it and we have been on a run, basically, since the beginning of the season and it is great. We enjoy every race. The great thing is you walk into the garage every morning and you see the guys and they are flat out. They are pushing very hard and there is no sign of getting lazy and not paying attention to detail. It is really enjoyable to see that knowing that we have already achieved a lot this year, but we are still hungry.”
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10/30/11
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