2012 Indian Grand Prix: Vettel takes dominant victory

Sebastian Vettel drove a dominant Indian Grand Prix to secure a fourth consecutive victory and his fifth of the season to extend his championship lead from Fernando Alonso who finished right behind in second.

Vettel lead the race from lap 1 and was unstoppable, the only threat to his chances of a win were unusual sparks from under his RB8, though that as well could not stop the German.

Fernando Alonso moved past Mark Webber late in the race; the Australian was hampered by a KERS problem, he then had to defend third place from a surging Lewis Hamilton who finished fourth for McLaren.

Jenson Button settled for fifth place ahead of Ferrari’s Felipe Massa; the Brazilian was under heavy pressure for most of the race from Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen.

Nico Hulkenberg gave Force India some points on their home Grand Prix by taking eighth followed by the Lotus of Romain Grojean and the Williams of Bruno Senna.

 


Pos  Driver        Team                              Time
 1.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault           1h31:10.744
 2.  Alonso        Ferrari                    +     9.437
 3.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault           +    13.217
 4.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes           +    13.909
 5.  Button        McLaren-Mercedes           +    26.266
 6.  Massa         Ferrari                    +    44.600
 7.  Raikkonen     Lotus-Renault              +    45.200
 8.  Hulkenberg    Force India-Mercedes       +    54.900
 9.  Grosjean      Lotus-Renault              +    56.100
10.  Senna         Williams-Renault           +  1:14.900
11.  Rosberg       Mercedes                   +  1:21.600
12.  Di Resta      Force India-Mercedes       +  1:22.800
13.  Ricciardo     Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +  1:26.000
14.  Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari             +  1:26.400
15.  Vergne        Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +     1 lap
16.  Maldonado     Williams-Renault           +     1 lap
17.  Petrov        Caterham-Renault           +     1 lap
18.  Kovalainen    Caterham-Renault           +     1 lap
19.  Pic           Marussia-Cosworth          +     1 lap
20.  Glock         Marussia-Cosworth          +    2 laps
21.  Karthikeyan   HRT-Cosworth               +    2 laps
22.  Schumacher    Mercedes                   +    5 laps