Indian GP review: Vettel's Indian stunner

PRACTICE

Practice one - Friday AM

Any illusions that Red Bull's recently rediscovered dominance might be track-specific were ruthlessly dispelled by Sebastian Vettel at the end of the first 90 minutes of running at the Buddh International Circuit.

Teams will tell you that positions, and times, have little relevance on Friday, but one couldn't fail to notice the 0.3s advantage the world champion had late in the session.

Prior to that, first practice had looked fairly mixed, with each of McLaren, Ferrari, Red Bull and even Mercedes looking strong as the track went through various phases of grip and dust levels. And one look at the closeness of second-placed Button's times to that of Alonso, Hamilton and Webber's (all covered by 0.2s) suggested at least that things behind the champ could be closer.

Sergio Perez's 'man-flu' got the better of him in the first session, though it appeared to be a suspiciously morning-specific illness. Nevertheless it gave Esteban Gutierrez a chance to try out some 2012 F1 machinery as speculation continued that he may be a Sauber racer next year.

Full list of times from practice one

Practice two - Friday PM

Red Bull's advantage over the pack apparently doubled in the second session as the closest any non-RB8 equipped driver could get to Vettel was 0.599s. That was Alonso in the Ferrari, which sported new front and rear wings and a different undertray.

The former world championship leader would have drawn comfort from the fact that he was the fastest man on the harder Pirelli tyre though, as he was the quickest man over the long-run simulations on the soft tyre.

Red Bull people seemed unconcerned, however. It was Friday after all, wasn't it? Behind the top three was Rosberg, but the German was keen to stress that position was higher than reality though - despite the Mercedes's pace through sector one, with its long straight.

There were a few spins in this session, including three for Felipe Massa, who wrecked both his sets of tyres.

This time around the McLarens were only sixth and seventh, and worried about their one-lap pace, while Bruno Senna being in the top ten marked the makings of a promising weekend for Williams.

Full list of times from practice two

Practice three - Saturday AM

There was to be no let up from Red Bull in final practice, and no sniff of opportunity for the rest of the field.

Jenson Button may have taken McLaren to within two tenths of the championship leader, but the fact that closing the gap represented significant progress showed just how far ahead Red Bull was.

It was a point stamped home from the moment they hit the track. With Mark Webber leading out Vettel, the pair shot straight to the top of the timesheets, eight tenths clear of the pack.

Next time round Vettel displaced Webber at the head of the standings and was never threatened thereafter. He improved late on when running on the softs, but he needn't have: 25 minutes in, his hard-rubber best would already prove faster than anyone else could manage.

It wasn't all doom and gloom though. McLaren genuinely had closed the gap, and with Lewis Hamilton abandoning a late flyer on softs, the gap to the front might realistically have been even less than Button's 0.192s deficit.

There was even a spin for Webber at the final corner, just to prove the Red Bull traction was breakable.

For Ferrari though there wasn't much comfort. With Kimi Raikkonen looking strong and Bruno Senna putting in an impressive shift, seventh was the best the team could achieve at the hands of Fernando Alonso. No amount of drafting with team-mate Felipe Massa, who ended 11th quickest, could improve upon that.

As was the case with Williams and Ferrari, there were clear splits further down the field. Nico Hulkenberg, for example, was eighth, while Force India team-mate Paul di Resta came home 14th. Mercedes matched the sequence: Michael Schumacher lapping ninth fastest, Nico Rosberg 15th.

While those teams did at least have the comfort of one top1- representative, things looked more uneasy for Sauber. Sergio Perez, complaining of a nervous car, could only manage 13th, while Kamui Kobayashi languished five spots down the road. The Japanese driver would show similar pace in qualifying; Perez, in contrast, would to his own surprise manage to break into Q3.

Full list of times from practice three

QUALIFYING

1. Sebastian Vettel

"Pole is the best place to start from, so I'm happy with that. We had a good qualifying session and a good weekend so far with no car issues. My first attempt in Q3 wasn't great, I was a bit too greedy with braking in to Turn 4, but after that we had a good second run and it was enough for pole."

2. Mark Webber

"It was great for us today. We put in a lot of effort to make sure we had a great car to get as high up the grid as possible. It was very, very close with Seb and I, both of us only really had one run in Q3, Seb made a mistake on his first lap and I couldn't get the tyre prep right for the second run."

3. Lewis Hamilton

"Even if I'd had a perfect qualifying lap, I think I'd only have found another tenth. I reckon I got everything out of the car, particularly on my final run in Q3; the middle and last sectors were particularly strong."

4. Jenson Button

"We struggled a little to get the Options [tyres] working, particularly on the first lap, so I went for a different strategy from most other drivers, carrying out a three-lap run. The longer run really worked out for me in Q2, in fact, but I didn't quite have the right balance in Q3: I had a bit more understeer, as the circuit had gripped-up more than we'd anticipated. In terms of my performance, my Q2 lap was better than my Q3 lap."

5. Fernando Alonso

"There was no way we could be ahead of the Red Bulls and McLarens. In the end, fifth place is not so bad, because it would have been easy to end up even further back if anything had gone wrong. Clearly, finishing ahead of Red Bull is our aim, but today it was impossible."

6. Felipe Massa

"I am reasonably pleased with sixth place, even if maybe, but for a mistake at Turn 6 on my run in Q3, I could have started from further forward. In qualifying Red Bull is faster, while McLaren was only just ahead and then it's us: in the races, things are a bit different and we hope we can fight with these four cars for the top places."

7. Kimi Raikkonen

"We changed the car after this morning's session and we were quite confident heading into qualifying. Unfortunately, we didn't seem to have any grip this afternoon so it was much more difficult than we thought. I'm quite disappointed to be starting from seventh as I thought we had a much better car than that."

8. Sergio Perez

"In Q2 I think I managed to get in a perfect lap. The one in Q3 wasn't that good but still okay. I am very motivated for tomorrow's race and want to score as many points as possible."

9. Pastor Maldonado

"I made a small mistake on the final corner of my final lap which lost me quite a lot of time so I don't think ninth is reflective of our true pace today. We were not as quick as we needed to be yesterday but we worked really hard to understand why and the car felt much better today."

10. Nico Rosberg

"In terms of our strategy for the race, it was better for us not to run in Q3 as it should give us a better pace tomorrow with fresh tyres. Of course it's not a nice feeling to be waiting in the pits and watching the others out there."

11. Romain Grosjean

"I was expecting better so I'm a little disappointed, however in terms of strategy P11 has one advantage as you're the first car that can choose which tyres it will start the race. I wish I could have got through into Q3 and lacking two hundredths of a second to make it there was frustrating."

12. Nico Hulkenberg

"We went into the session targeting and expecting to make Q3, so it's a bit disappointing to miss out. After the first part of qualifying it was clear that it was going to be a big task. My lap in Q2 was actually pretty good with no mistakes and that was just the maximum for us today."

13. Bruno Senna

"I made a mistake on my lap which is disappointing because I would have been in the top 10 if that hadn't happened. We showed good pace in this morning's practice and in Q1 as well as a clear improvement over the last couple of races."

14. Michael Schumacher

"We had a tough qualifying session today and I cannot yet really explain why, particularly when I compare the times to what I did this morning. In practice, we were able to run similar lap times with much more fuel in the car but, for whatever reason, we were unable to get the tyres into the right working window and generate enough grip this afternoon."

15. Daniel Ricciardo

"That was quite a good session for me and I was pretty happy with my laps, even if my last run in Q2 was a bit scrappy, but generally I pushed hard to get the time out of the car. I had hoped to get a bit closer to Q3, but looking at our pace this morning, we did make a small step forward for qualifying."

16. Paul di Resta

"The car balance was not ideal and I didn't have the best lap during my final run in Q2 - there were a few small mistakes and I didn't have the consistency or the confidence to really push."

17. Kamui Kobayashi

"The pace of the car is better now than it was before, but in the end in Q2 it all went wrong. I had decided to take fuel for only one lap and then we made a mistake with the car's settings, which caused the brake balance to be completely wrong. I then didn't have a second chance because of the fuel."

18. Jean-Eric Vergne

"It turned out to be quite complicated to find the right balance on the car so it was difficult for me. I am disappointed to have missed out on Q2 by just fractions of a second and so I will have to try and get a good race tomorrow."

19. Vitaly Petrov

"I've had a balance I've been happy with in every session. We made a couple of changes for quali and the way the car felt and my laptimes showed that we made some progress, so I'm pleased with that."

20. Heikki Kovalainen

"There was more to come but I had a bit of traffic that held me up and then on my second run I caught up with a bunch of cars going into turn 10 and lost a bit of grip, enough to put me off. I wasn't going in too hard and there weren't any issues with the car, I just lost the front end and even with the spin I didn't lose any positions."

21. Timo Glock

"In qualifying we again experienced a more general problem with the overall balance. Even though the track is dirty, the grip level on the racing line is high, but we were unable to make the most of that because I was unable to get temperature into the front right."

22. Pedro de la Rosa

"Although we didn't find the lap we were hoping for, we did complete a very good qualifying session. With the second set and with more rubber on the track when times could be improved significantly, I encountered a lot of traffic and I was unable to complete a clean lap."

23. Narain Karthikeyan

"Overall I'm happy with the performance we showed in the qualifying session. On my second run I made a mistake on lap 10 which cost me a couple of tenths but the large amount of cars on the track was the main problem as we didn't find a gap to go as quick as we would have liked."

24. Charles Pic

"Naturally I am a little disappointed with qualifying today because it was not a reflection of our true pace here. The first run on the hard tyre was strong in sectors 1 and 2, but I had to abort the lap. In the second run, on the soft tyre, we were less competitive than on the hard tyre."

Starting grid

 1. Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault
 2. Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault
 3. Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes
 4. Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes
 5. Fernando Alonso       Ferrari
 6. Felipe Massa          Ferrari
 7. Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault
 8. Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari
 9. Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault
10. Nico Rosberg          Mercedes
11. Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault
12. Nico Hulkenberg       Force India-Mercedes
13. Bruno Senna           Williams-Renault
14. Michael Schumacher    Mercedes
15. Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari
16. Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes
17. Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari
18. Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari
19. Vitaly Petrov         Caterham-Renault
20. Heikki Kovalainen     Caterham-Renault
21. Timo Glock            Marussia-Cosworth
22. Pedro de la Rosa      HRT-Cosworth
23. Narain Karthikeyan    HRT-Cosworth
24. Charles Pic           Marussia-Cosworth

THE RACE

The lights went green, 60 laps passed, and the triumphant finger was raised once again.

Ostensibly, it was that simple.

This was a victory from the Sebastian Vettel textbook, a lesson in converting pole into an early lead and managing the gap thereafter. As had been the case throughout Friday and Saturday, no-one else was afforded a peek.

As exceptional as it was, it was by no means a surprise. After three straight weekends of dominance, Vettel's championship push has moved well beyond being simply ominous. The defending champion has now led every lap of every grand prix since Lewis Hamilton's gearbox gave up the ghost in Singapore - which means an unbroken spell of 206 laps at the front of the field. In the space of just six races, a 42-point deficit has been turned into a 13-point lead.

Vettel has also scored four consecutive victories in one season, a feat he never managed to achieve even during last year's ruthless title-winning campaign. In F1 history, every driver to record such a run has gone on to win that year's crown. After India, what odds on Vettel continuing the trend?

As was the case a fortnight ago in Korea, the start was the crucial part, the only point at which the rest of the field had a realistic chance to steal in front of the Red Bull before it headed off into the distance. It had been duly talked up beforehand. Alonso promised to attack early; Button pledged aggression; Hamilton spoke of having 'a lot less to lose than Sebastian.'

In the end, it was academic.

Vettel made a good getaway and, after moving across to block Webber, ensured he preserved his position through the melee of the first corners. It would be the closest anyone would come to him all day.

Just down the road, the promise to attack did materialise, but not in the way intended. As Vettel and then Webber eased away, Hamilton came under fire, first from Button and then, as the two McLaren team-mates went side by side down the back straight, from Alonso.

Brief it may have been, but it was at least spectacular - a rare moment in an otherwise processional, even drab, race. Button initially took third, only for Hamilton to reclaim it with a lunge down the inside into Turn 3. As he did so however he compromised his exit, and as he and Button went side-by-side they created the perfect tow for Alonso to sail by and into third. No sooner had he done so than he became the prey however, with Hamilton moving to the inside and Button the opposite at Turn 4. Somehow contact was avoided, but three into one wouldn't go and it was Hamilton who lost out, dropping to fifth behind Button and Alonso.

If the Briton was frustrated, it wouldn't take long to rectify. By lap seven both Alonso and Hamilton had passed Button, with the latter struggling for pace early on. By now, however, Vettel had all the gap he needed.

The front order gradually settled down, with Felipe Massa, Kimi Raikkonen and Sergio Perez tucking in behind Button. The Mexican would not last long however. Unusually for Sauber he was among the first to pit - behind only Michael Schumacher and Jean-Eric Vergne, both of whom stopped after suffering first-lap damage.

Perez didn't have the luxury of such an excuse: after just 15 laps his tyres had blistered and he was forced to pit. Four laps later, as he tried to fight his way past the Toro Rosso of Daniel Ricciardo, his rear tyre made contact with the Australian's front wing, punctured, shredded and ultimately caused enough damage to force him to retire.

Perez's misfortune elevated the fast-starting Nico Hulkenberg into eighth, Nico Rosberg into ninth and turned a three-way fight between Romain Grosjean and the two Williams of Pastor Maldonado and Bruno Senna into a scrap for 10th.

Maldonado initially held the advantage, but on lap 17 Grosjean sold him a dummy by jinking to the outside and then barrelling down the inside at Turn 4. Maldonado's line was compromised, and Senna took full advantage to nip past on the exit. Maldonado would get back ahead of the Brazilian through the pit stops - a wild moment on pit entry proving costly for Senna - but both were jumped by the second Sauber of Kamui Kobayashi. The Japanese driver and the Venezuelan made contact three laps later, and while both escaped stewards' censure it ultimately scuppered their races.

Further up the road the first round of stops had also given Raikkonen the chance to finally jump Massa's Ferrari, which was proving mighty on top speed. Massa emerged ahead of the Finn, but on warmer rubber he jumped ahead at Turn 3. It was futile however - down the straight Massa coasted back past and resumed his role in sixth.

The second Ferrari of Alonso was meanwhile rapidly closing in on Webber, who was later revealed to be struggling with an intermittent KERS. When the system came back into operation Webber pulled away once again, but it failed again - this time permanently - and the demoralised Australian was helpless to prevent Alonso cruising by on the back straight and into second.

He was at least far enough ahead of Hamilton to cling onto third, although the Briton came within seven tenths of a second, and one mistake, of depriving Webber of the final step of the podium.

Button came home a quiet fifth, while Massa continued to hold off Raikkonen for sixth. Nico Hulkenberg was finally presented with something of a threat for eighth when Grosjean closed in late on, but the Frenchman ultimately ran out of time to offer a more serious examination of the Force India. Tenth, meanwhile, went to Senna after a late pass on Rosberg's Mercedes.

Even with a fervent crowd cheering the arrival of the podium trio, it was hard not to feel deflated.

F1 has now served up two uninspiring races in succession. Moreover, a title race that promised so much in the early stages is now in massive danger of becoming another runaway Vettel success.

Alonso remains defiant that he and Ferrari can improve the situation, and it is perhaps only thanks to his doggedness, his season-long brilliance, that hopes of the championship fight going right down to the wire linger.

The fight back has to happen soon though - on the basis of India, like Korea and Japan before it, there is precious little sign of the Red Bull juggernaut slowing down.

Lap-by-lap as it happened on AUTOSPORT Live

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                    +    44.674
 7.  Raikkonen     Lotus-Renault              +    45.227
 8.  Hulkenberg    Force India-Mercedes       +    54.998
 9.  Grosjean      Lotus-Renault              +    56.103
10.  Senna         Williams-Renault           +  1:14.975
11.  Rosberg       Mercedes                   +  1:21.694
12.  Di Resta      Force India-Mercedes       +  1:22.815
13.  Ricciardo     Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +  1:26.064
14.  Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari             +  1:26.495
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

Fastest lap: Button, 1:28.203

Not classified/retirements:

Driver        Team                         On lap
De la Rosa    HRT-Cosworth                 41
Perez         Sauber-Ferrari               21


World Championship standings, round 17:                

Drivers:                    Constructors:             
 1.  Vettel       240        1.  Red Bull-Renault          407
 2.  Alonso       227        2.  Ferrari                   316
 3.  Raikkonen    173        3.  McLaren-Mercedes          306
 4.  Webber       167        4.  Lotus-Renault             263
 5.  Hamilton     165        5.  Mercedes                  136
 6.  Button       141        6.  Sauber-Ferrari            116
 7.  Rosberg       93        7.  Force India-Mercedes       93
 8.  Grosjean      90        8.  Williams-Renault           59
 9.  Massa         89        9.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari         21
10.  Perez         66       
11.  Kobayashi     50       
12.  Hulkenberg    49       
13.  Di Resta      44       
14.  Schumacher    43       
15.  Maldonado     33       
16.  Senna         26       
17.  Vergne        12       
18.  Ricciardo      9       
       
All timing unofficial

TEAM BY TEAM

Red Bull

Right from the get-go, the weekend had just one owner, and it was rather clear that only some sort of unusual occurrence would rob Sebastian Vettel of his fourth consecutive victory.

Qualifying was not as easy as usual for the German, who made a mistake in his first Q3 run and needed another one to secure the top spot. The race, however, held no such problems for the world champion, who made a solid start to keep team-mate Mark Webber at bay and then never looked back. A minor issue with his car's floor near the end of the race added the now usual bit of suspense, but Vettel was untouchable.

Webber was good in qualifying and came close to stealing pole from Vettel, but the Australian could not get his tyres warmed up properly for his final run and missed the top spot by less than a tenth. Sunday's race was looking good for Webber until he suffered KERS issues that made it impossible for him to keep Alonso at bay. In the end he managed to hold Hamilton and keep third, but admitted the problem was "demoralising".

McLaren

All in all, it was an underwhelming weekend for McLaren, which had been bullish about its chances of challenging Red Bull in the race despite not having been able to touch the Milton Keynes squad in qualifying.

Come race day, however, the reality was very different, and neither Hamilton nor Button presented a challenge to Red Bull and could do nothing to stop Alonso either. Hamilton made a poor start and lost out to both his team-mate and the Ferrari driver, although he later managed to pass Button for fourth. He gave it all and pushed Webber, but in the end had to settle for a place outside the podium.

Button enjoyed the early scrap but then struggled with his tyres during the first stint on options. He was better off once he stopped early for fresh rubber, but when he returned to the track he was stuck behind Romain Grosjean and lost all his chances of catching the leading trio.

Ferrari

Like McLaren, Ferrari was confident it would have a better race after struggling for pace in qualifying. Alonso was as his usual best on Saturday, but could only secure fifth position behind the Red Bulls and the McLarens.

In the race, the Spaniard excelled once again and flattered his machinery with a superb, relentless, drive that looked like 60 qualifying laps. He passed the McLarens early on and then started to chase Webber, whom he passed easily down the DRS zone, the Australian's KERS not working. Catching Vettel was out of the question, however, and the Spaniard left India 13 points behind his rival.

Massa had a bit of a nightmare on Friday, when a wrong setting in his car meant he spun three times in FP2. Things improved in qualifying and he thought he could have been higher than sixth if not for a mistake. His race was nothing like Alonso's though, the Brazilian conserving fuel for most of the event. His pace was therefore poor and he finished a distant sixth, nearly 40 seconds behind Alonso.

Mercedes

You could be forgiven for thinking Mercedes was not in India, the German squad hardly made an impression this weekend. Ross Brawn himself admitted his team was on the wrong end of those precious tenths needed to be fighting for decent positions, and Mercedes left Delhi with nothing to show for it.

Rosberg decided not to run in Q3 in order to have fresh rubber for the race, but even starting with a new set of softs didn't help and the German was pretty much anonymous on his way to 11th.

Schumacher's presence in the race was noticed when he made contact with a Toro Rosso at the start and had to crawl back to the pits and resume at the tail of the field. He spent the race trying to recover some ground and eventually finished in 22nd and under investigation for having ignored blue flags.

Lotus

Even after finishing in seventh position, 45 seconds behind Vettel, Raikkonen was convinced his car had the pace to be on the podium. It wasn't to be, however, as the Finn paid the price for making a mistake with his set-up direction in qualifying, an error that left him on the fourth row of the grid. From there, he could not make any progress in the race and was left, once again, wondering what could have been.

Romain Grosjean admitted he was disappointed after he qualified in 11th position, but at least he was free to choose his race strategy. On Sunday, the Frenchman said he had a perfect race, but Lotus's pace was simply not there this weekend and he had to be content with ninth place.

Force India

Keeping his momentum going, Nico Hulkenberg was Force India's main man all weekend in the team's 'home' grand prix. Despite understeering issues in Q1 and Q2, the German qualified in 12th. He climbed four places on Sunday and admitted it was the maximum he could have hoped for after a flawless drive.

Paul di Resta had a difficult weekend and started from 16th place, his worst qualifying effort of the year. From there, there was only so much progress he could make but like Hulkenberg, felt he had achieved the best possible result after coming home in 12th.

Sauber

Another team to leave India with nothing to show for it, Sauber had a promising Saturday, at least on the Mexican side of the garage. Sergio Perez finished the day a strong eighth that surprised the driver himself. His race was a different affair though, and the McLaren-bound racer retired after just 20 laps, having damaged his car after driving a lap with a punctured tyre following contact with a Toro Rosso.

Kamui Kobayashi was never in contention for a good result having qualified down in 17th place. The Japanese had better pace than 14th position suggested, but in the end he paid the price for being stuck in traffic most of the time.

Toro Rosso

Both Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne admitted after qualifying that it would be hard to repeat the sort of race performance they put on in Korea after qualifying 15th and 18th respectively. Their prediction proved accurate and neither could make much progress on Sunday.

Ricciardo had an eventful first lap and lost a few places before climbing up to 13th thanks to a better feeling when he switched to the the prime tyres. Vergne finished 15th after making contact with Schumacher on the opening lap, an incident which damaged his front wing.

Williams

After a low-key start on Friday, some overnight changes improved matters for Williams and Pastor Maldonado managed to return to Q3 with the ninth fastest time. Bruno Senna had also looked strong in the previous sessions, but the Brazilian made a mistake on his final Q2 lap and had to settle for 13th.

In the race, Maldonado was confident of finishing in the points until he picked up a puncture that ended all his chances of a good result, despite showing good pace. The Venezuelan finished down in 16th. Senna did finish in the points thanks to a strong performance that got him to 10th position after several on-track fights.

Caterham

Vitaly Petrov had a good run on Saturday to outqualify team-mate Heikki Kovalainen for the second race in a row, securing 19th position on the grid. The Russian was again Caterham's top man in the race, having switched to a one-stop strategy after realising the planned two-stopper would not work. He finished in 17th.

Kovalainen had also planned two stops but switched to one, and the Finn was running ahead of Petrov until a KERS issue meant he had to let the Russian through. In the end he was 18th.

HRT

Despite feeling like he had not extracted the best from his car, Pedro de la Rosa was pleased with his qualifying effort after managing to outpace both his team-mate and the Marussia of Charles Pic. The race, however, lasted 42 laps for the Spaniard, who spun out when he suffered a frightening brake failure.

Narain Karthikeyan started from 22nd, the Indian complaining that he was unable to do a fully clear lap, also admitting a mistake on his second run had cost him a few tenths. Sunday did not start well, with the HRT driver reporting that everything was getting too hot in his car. He had to slow down in order to stop his brakes from overheating, a situation that improved in the second half, where the local hero drove to 21st position.

Marussia

Marussia struggled in qualifying, with Timo Glock complaining of balance issues with his car on his way to 21st, and Charles Pic failing to improve his laptime with the softer tyres, the Frenchman finishing at the bottom of the times.

Things were much better for Pic on Sunday and the rookie climbed up to 19th place thanks to a solid drive and a good pitstop that put him ahead of Glock. The German, meanwhile, had what he labelled "a strange race", losing some positions at the start and then being stuck behind Petrov in the early part of the race. Glock wound up 20th after suffering from vibration issues and "too many blue flags to contend with".

RACE DATA

The Race in Action

Full race lap times (H)

Full race lap times (V)

Lap chart (positions)

Lap chart (gaps)