Mark Hughes' GP report: Vettel reaches a new level

As the rest squabbled to try to offer Sebastian Vettel some competition, it only increased his advantage.

Sitting in second place on the grid, his apparent threats were:

Mark Webber: He was taken care of at the start, as has happened so often before, Mark's poor start further punished by it allowing Nico Rosberg's Mercedes through too.

By the time Webber had found a way by the Merc, Vettel was 26.5 seconds up the road, an average of over 1s per lap. But at no stage did Webber have anything like the combination of pace and tyre usage of Vettel. Regardless of the start, this was Vettel's on pure 100 per cent merit.

Romain Grosjean: The Lotus driver was the dark horse. Though he'd qualified only seventh fastest, he was much faster than that made him look. That time came without the quick-shift facility, and with that fixed he was potentially Webber-quick at least.

Combine that with the potential to run the option (soft) tyre longer than anyone else and there was the prospect of a Nurburgring-like challenge to the Red Bulls - so long as he didn't get stuck behind the quick-on-the-straight Sauber of Nico Hulkenberg.

Well, he cleared the Sauber immediately - and Lewis Hamilton's Merc too - to run an early fourth. So far, so good. But his challenge was blunted by an early stop enforced upon him by Hamilton's early-graining tyres - Lotus forced to respond a lap later, or risk losing track position. That was the long-running first stint option gone.

So, far from challenging the Red Bulls, Grosjean was now on the back foot even against Rosberg. But his subsequent pace did nothing to suggest that he could have done anything whatsoever about Vettel. No one can at the moment.

"He has just stepped up his performance another notch recently," said an admiring Christian Horner. "His feel for the tyres whilst going so quickly is just remarkable. He just seems to get more from them than any other driver in the pitlane at the moment."

Webber put in a huge effort to take pole © XPB

Webber had taken that pole by sheer force of will, taking himself out of his comfort zone, but to stay outside it against someone to whom those big direction changes come so naturally, was asking too much. Particularly on the soft tyre.

"Whenever we get to this range of tyre," pondered Webber, "it seems to become very high maintenance for me. It's a bit frustrating but that's just the way it is. If you want to go quick you need to use them and then you're fighting for range. Also, when the limitation is the rear tyre - which it was here - it seems to hurt me more than Seb. That's the way it's been since 2011."

Webber's start wasn't great, but not bad either. It just wasn't quite as good as Vettel's, who was ahead even before they got to Turn 1. The row two Mercs were faster away than either Red Bull, allowing Rosberg around the outside of Webber and straight into second.

Hamilton was fast away too but had no choice other than the inside line, which made him vulnerable to be chopped by Webber into the apex of Turn 1. As he backed off to avoid this, so Grosjean went clean around his outside to go fourth.

Hulkenberg took up sixth ahead of Felipe Massa's Ferrari, with the second Ferrari of Fernando Alonso going around the outside of Sergio Perez's McLaren at the hairpin of Turn 7.

Raikkonen's race was brief © LAT

Starting from the back of the grid in his Lotus, Kimi Raikkonen was out within seconds after breaking a front track rod against a Caterham. Jenson Button damaged his front wing during opening lap contact with Paul di Resta - his consequent early stop for a replacement, and set of softs, consigned him to history.

Most were surprised when the tyre blankets had been removed to reveal Alonso starting on the softs, even though he wasn't obliged to, having qualified outside the top 10.

The soft had a degradation rate five times higher than the medium, so apparently compromising his strategy. But that was to reckon without a couple of mitigating points.

Firstly, practice had revealed the medium to be a very problematical tyre for Ferrari in the sort of high track temperatures prevailing at the pre-twilight start of the race. Sunset would come just after 20 laps, after which the track would cool to a level more suitable for the Ferrari/medium combination. Secondly, Ferrari figured if it could get either car to lap 18-19 on the softs, it might be able to do the remaining 36-37 laps on the medium without stopping again. Almost everyone else was planning a two-stop.

Webber tried a slipstream move on Rosberg up to Turn 8 at the end of that long back straight but Nico fended him off easily enough and this was all playing perfectly into Vettel's hands. Not only were they delaying each other but he now had a slower car between him and Webber.

Vettel crossed the line for the first time already 1.9s ahead, and proceeded to pull out an average of around a second per lap. In such circumstances it mattered not a jot that his speed at the end of that back straight was slower than anyone else's, around 7mph slower than the fastest.

Rosberg managed to split the Red Bulls for much of the race © XPB

Rosberg was quite satisfied with the behaviour of the Merc on these tyres; he had no particular problem, this is just where the car is at - relative to the Red Bull, or relative to Vettel's at least.

In the other car, Webber was soon beginning to lose the feeling of the tyres and actually gradually fell off the back of Rosberg and into the clutches of Grosjean. His problems had been exacerbated two or three laps in when his KERS began to overheat and he had to turn it off for a lap to bring the temperatures back under control. But still Grosjean couldn't take advantage; the Lotus was geared too short to be able to mount a successful DRS challenge on the Red Bull.

Webber wasn't the only one suffering with the tyres. Hamilton's pace was dropping away after just half a dozen laps, the rear tyres beginning to grain. This was the set on which he'd done an in/out-lap in Q2 and then his first Q3 run.

They hadn't originally been intended as his start tyres, but because he'd spun on his second Q3 run, and you're obliged to start on the tyres with which you set your best Q3 time, his tyres were at least two laps older than anyone else's. That Q2 decision to go out at the end had snowballed into a problem and at the end of lap seven, in he trailed for a fresh set of mediums. He would definitely be two-stopping from there.

Hamilton's problem also impacted upon Grosjean. Unlike in India, Lotus didn't feel a one-stop was going to work for it this time; it was doable but just didn't compute as the fastest way.

So given that it was two-stopping, in order not to lose track position to Lewis, Lotus had to bring its man in on the next lap. Which was at least a couple earlier than had been intended - and this in turn lost Grosjean further time to Rosberg. But not to Webber - for he came in on the same lap as Grosjean from around half-a-second ahead.

The Red Bull stop was 0.4s faster and Webber's advantage stretched further when he was able to complete a DRS pass on Esteban Gutierrez's Sauber on his out-lap. By the time Grosjean found his way by at the same place a lap later, Webber was 3s clear. On the mediums, Mark was much happier with the balance and feeling on the front foot for the first time.

Rosberg's advantage over Webber had been such that he was able to pit two laps later and still emerge ahead. But, in contrast to Mark, he was much less happy with his balance once he'd switched to the harder tyre.

It was a lonely, flawless, race for Vettel © XPB

Yet still Vettel stayed out there. Even as all the other two-stoppers came in and changed, he was going way faster on his very old softs than anyone could conjure from their fresh mediums. He was just in a perfect place, with a lightness of touch and a beautiful rhythm.

"It felt like I was flying at times," he said afterwards. He was in a zone rare even for him. He eventually came in at the end of lap 14 and exited without losing the lead even to those trying to one-stop (Massa, Alonso and Paul di Resta's Force India, who temporarily occupied second, third and fourth places). He was already almost 17s clear of Rosberg, the guy he was actually racing.

Between Rosberg and Webber was the one-stopping Force India of Adrian Sutil and by the time Mark found a way by that, Rosberg was a couple of seconds clear and about to pass Jean-Eric Vergne's one-stopping Toro Rosso. It was then Grosjean's turn to find his way by Sutil and Vergne and once Rosberg, Webber and Grosjean were back in free air, the Lotus had fallen off the back of the trio and Romain needed to get his head down to get back on terms.

Alonso came in at the end of the 16th lap, his option tyres beginning to surrender. One-stopping now seemed to be off the menu, but Massa was able to continue for a further couple of laps - enough to get him in and out ahead of Hulkenberg. Just behind them, Alonso would take a couple of laps to find a way by Perez who had stopped as early as lap six on his low wing setting with the rear tyres finished. Their dice would continue for a time.

Webber (happy on his mediums) was upon Rosberg (unhappy on his) by the 19th lap and passed him in the second DRS zone up to Turn 10 a lap later. From there, the Red Bull swiftly pulled away and the team was well on the way to its third 1-2 of the year, and the second in succession.

Sutil proved a tough nut for Hamilton to crack © XPB

Rosberg's focus was now on Grosjean a few seconds behind him. Sutil was still hanging on there in fifth, yet to stop on his primes, team-mate di Resta having pitted to get rid of his options and now planning on getting to the end without stopping.

Hamilton was trapped behind Sutil and Lewis's earlier combatant Grosjean was now long gone. No matter how hard Hamilton tried, he simply could not put a successful DRS move on the Force India. It wasn't about end of straight speeds either - the two were quite evenly matched there - but about how difficult the Mercedes is in the wake of another car. This was preventing him getting close enough coming onto the straights.

"We need to get our thinking caps on about that," reflected Ross Brawn. "There's little point in having a quick car if you cannot use the performance."

So the snowballing effect of that Q2 tyre choice for Lewis played out.

Soon Massa joined the back of their dice and no sooner was he there than he'd put a move on them both. The Ferrari was fastest of all through the trap before Turn 8 but nonetheless Felipe made clinical use of it on the 25th lap.

Hamilton had tried once more to put a DRS move on Sutil up to that corner, Sutil had again retaliated with a DRS move of his own as they screamed down to Turn 10 and as this put Hamilton off-line, so Massa sliced to his inside and took the place.

Massa was in combative mood and would put a great move on Hamilton © LAT

It was then a formality for the Ferrari driver to pass the Force India on the DRS up to Turn 8 on the following lap. It took Lewis another couple of laps before he was able to do the same - at which point Sutil finally pitted!

The lap before, Hulkenberg and Perez had pitted together in ninth and 10th. The Sauber stop was slightly delayed and he was released just as the McLaren was almost upon him. This was later adjudged to have been an unsafe release and Nico was obliged to pit for a drive-through, rather ruining his race and putting him a long way from a points-paying position; a disappointing outcome after such a stellar qualifying performance.

Hamilton came in for his second stop on lap 29. Massa and Grosjean ahead of him had no need to respond, such was the advantage they'd now built over him. Hamilton's stop now released Alonso and he was soon upon the back of team-mate Massa, and his tyres were in much better shape.

Although one-stopping was not now feasible for the Ferraris, if they could run long enough to be able to fit the options at their second stops, there might be places on offer from those who had made their first stops earlier. Although they had a higher degradation rate than the primes, they were much faster initially - by as much as 1.5s per lap. It would be 10 laps before a set of mediums would be faster.

Webber and Rosberg pitted together on lap 33, four seconds apart, and left in the same order. Vettel stayed out five laps longer and again pitted without losing the lead.

Forty seconds behind him, Grosjean came in for his second and final stop and the manner of his rejoining was rather dramatic; he exited the fast pit exit between Turns 3 and 4 just as the Ferraris of Massa and Alonso were closing fast. He held his nerve and his line with steely resolve to cut across Massa's bows. The design of the pit exit, the way it merges with the main track at a point where both lanes are travelling very quickly invites drama - and there was more to come.

Grosjean could only manage fourth this time © LAT

Massa pitted at the end of the lap, and was surprised to be fitted with another set of mediums. Because he'd reached the end of the life of his previous mediums quite quickly and there were still 17 laps to go, it was felt that softs would have made him potentially vulnerable at the end. His later stop put him back behind Hamilton.

Alonso meanwhile ploughed on, still going quickly and only around 5s behind Grosjean. He finally came in on lap 44, only nine from the end - comfortably close enough to have a set of softs fitted. His rejoining would be even more dramatic than Grosjean's.

His pitting had promoted the one-stopping di Resta to fifth, a few seconds ahead of Hamilton and the one-stopping Vergne. Alonso exited the pitlane absolutely side-by-side with the Toro Rosso.

"I didn't realise he was there," said Vergne in explanation of how he moved across on the Ferrari, obliging Fernando to take to the kerbs at massive speed - hard enough to trigger the 25g warning light in the cockpit that requires the driver to make a later visit to the medical centre - but he was now ahead.

Vergne got off line as he realised what was happening, then pulled back onto it just before the braking zone for turn four - obliging Massa to run across the escape road.

"I wasn't trying to pass him there," explained Alonso. "Just after that is the DRS detection zone and I was just aiming to be close to him there and then pass him in the DRS zone."

Poor old Vergne's tyres were now finished, the Toro Rosso quite unable to make the Pirellis last long enough and he was soon dropping like a stone and would finally end up 18th, passed by two-stopping team-mate Daniel Ricciardo.

Di Resta was having no such problems and was doing a great job holding off Hamilton - to such good effect that Alonso was soon upon them. He'd lit up the track on his fresh soft tyres and with five laps to go he was side-by-side with the Mercedes in the first DRS zone and finished the job in the second zone up to Turn 10.

Vergne had a frightening moment with Alonso © XPB

A lap later and the Ferrari passed the Force India into Turn 8 and with an adept piece of weaving it retained the place into Turn 10. Massa was then upon the di Resta/Hamilton battle but couldn't quite make a move.

Vettel was over half a minute ahead of Webber as he crossed the line for his seventh consecutive victory - equalling the seasonal consecutive record - and afterwards Mark was genuine enough to admit: "Seb was just on a different planet to the rest of us today."

Rosberg extracted the maximum possible result from the Mercedes with third, keeping Grosjean at arm's length right to the end.

Alonso was a further half-minute adrift, maxing the Ferrari's limited potential around a track that punishes its weak traction, and one-stopping di Resta scored a great result by holding on to sixth despite relentless pressure from Hamilton and Massa.

Perez stole ninth place with a nice move on Sutil on the final lap.

What was the secret of Vettel's dazzling combination of pace and ease on the tyres? "I've got traction control!" he joked. How can you not like this guy?