Record-breaking race for Red Bull

Sebastian Vettel's Indian Grand Prix weekend broke new ground for Red Bull as the Austrian-owned team rewrote Formula 1 World Championship history at the new Buddh circuit.

Red Bull's 16th pole position of the season was a new record, beating the previous record of 15 that was set by McLaren in 1988. On three occasions the old record had been equalled; by McLaren's Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost in 1989, by Williams' Nigel Mansell and Riccardo Patrese in 1992, and then again by Sir Frank's line-up - this time of Prost and Damon Hill - the following season.

But while Red Bull had the one record to celebrate, Vettel had far more...

Incredible Vettel

It's not exactly news when Vettel reaches a F1 landmark these days, such has been the dominance of the German during the 2011 season.

But last weekend's Inaugural Indian race brought a rather special achievement for the Red Bull driver as, for the first time in his career in the world championship, he won from pole, leading every lap and setting the fastest lap too.

Vettel smashed Senna's record from Estoril '85 © LAT

In world championship history, only 21 other drivers have achieved such a milestone. The only other drivers currently competing that can boast the same achievement are Michael Schumacher, who did it five times, and Fernando Alonso, who did it once.

Vettel was close to doing the same in Singapore, but had fastest lap taken away from him by Jenson Button within sight of the finish.

By achieving it in India, Vettel becomes the youngest man to do so at 24 years and 119 days old. The previous record of 25 years and 34 days was set by Ayrton Senna at the 1985 Portuguese Grand Prix.

Only since sealing the title in Japan has Vettel focused on setting fastest laps; he had set it only once this year up to Suzuka, but has managed it at the past two grands prix.

And, just for good measure, here's a handful of other records Vettel set at the Buddh International Circuit.

• He has now tied Michael Schumacher's record of races led in a year from 2004 by heading his 16th in India.

• Vettel has started from the front row 16 times in 2011, equalling the record for top-two starts in a year set by Ayrton Senna in 1989, Prost in 1993 and Damon Hill in 1996.

• The German is the first man to lead more than 700 laps in a year, taking his total to 711. The previous record of 692 laps was set by Nigel Mansell in 1992. It is worth bearing in mind, however, that Vettel's end-of-season total will be from 19 races, not Mansell's 16.

Nineteen races and counting for Red Bull on the podium now © LAT

Race notes

• Red Bull was on the podium for the 19th straight race in India, moving it into joint third place in the all-time standings and equalling McLaren's run from Australia 2007-Malaysia 2008. The best two sequences are held by Ferrari; its all-time record of 53 coming from Malaysia 1999-Japan 2002 and dwarfing its 22-race run from Italy 2003-Australia 2005.

• For the fifth time Red Bull claimed victory from pole with fastest lap and all laps led. This puts it level with Brabham at fifth in the all-time rankings, while Ferrari leads with 40.

• Vettel has now finished on the podium 35 times, putting him 20th in the all-time rankings; equal with Juan Manuel Fangio and Emerson Fittipaldi.

• Lewis Hamilton suffered a blot on his copybook in India as his status as of having finished on the podium at every track he has started a world championship race at, was wiped out. Only Fangio and Luigi Fagioli now hold the honour, although Hamilton can make amends next year.

• After nine races of finishing higher than he qualified, Alonso's excellent sequence came to an end in India. The Ferrari driver was promoted to third on the grid - his best starting spot since the British GP - by Hamilton's grid penalty for his yellow flag infringement in practice.

• For the first time in 10 races, Felipe Massa failed to score a point in India.

Qualifying notes

• For the 20th straight race both Ferraris started inside the top 10. No other current team can match this achievement of making it into Q3.

Rosberg was best of the rest in qualifying yet again © LAT

• With Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari dominating in qualifying this year, starting sixth often makes a driver the slowest of the big three, and it's Massa bringing up the rear of the train. For the ninth time since the start of 2010, it was he who qualified sixth.

• By contrast, the best of the rest was once again Nico Rosberg; seventh for the eighth time in 2011 in his Mercedes and starting there for the third time in four races.

• Both Toro Rossos qualified inside the top 10 in India; the first time this has happened since the Chinese GP early in the year.

• Jarno Trulli made his 250th start in the F1 World Championship in India, although the Lotus driver has actually had 254 official presences at events (allowing for non-starts for various reasons). Massa, meanwhile, made his 150th start (and can count 152 presences).

• Due to his grid penalty, Sergio Perez started from his worst career qualifying spot of 20th in India. Even without it, he would have equalled his career-worst in 17th. In fact, due to the penalties handed out to five drivers, 18 of the 24 drivers had their qualifying spots re-assigned in India.