Author: admin

Lewis Hamilton heads a McLaren front row in the all-important championship decider at Interlagos, denying his team-mate Jenson Button to pole position.

As for the title rivals Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso, the Red Bull driver will start the Brazilian Grand Prix in fourth position while his Ferrari-powered opponent could only manage eighth.

Neither Vettel nor Alonso looked like they had the speed to fight for pole as McLaren took charge of Q3.

Hamilton and Button were fastest after the first runs, with Alonso in fifth at that stage while a mistake at the Descida do Lago left Vettel only sixth.

Both improved on their next qualifying runs, but Alonso’s gains were only marginal. The Spaniard held fourth, only to be demoted to eighth as others improved. His German rival was right down in tenth position at that stage, but was at least able to salvage fourth.

Meanwhile his Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber briefly deposed the McLarens at the head of the order, before Hamilton and Button’s final laps thrust them back to the top, 0.055 seconds apart.

Behind the McLarens and Red Bulls, Felipe Massa outqualified Alonso for the second time in the space of seven days as he claimed fifth.

Pastor Maldonado’s Williams and the Force India of Nico Hulkenberg also found themselves ahead of the championship contenders as they took sixth and seventh.

The final top ten spots went to the Lotus of Kimi Raikkonen and Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes.

Competing in his final qualifying session, Michael Schumacher recorded a disappointing result for himself and the team with only P14. Half a second down on his team-mate Rosberg. Not the ideal way to celebrate the end of his ‘second’ Formula One career.

Paul di Resta again struggled to match Force India team-mate Hulkenberg’s qualifying form too, ending up missing the Q3 cut in P11.

Also out in Q2 were Williams’s Bruno Senna, both Saubers and both Toro Rossos.

Romain Grosjean was knocked out in Q1 in dramatic fashion. The Lotus made contact with Pedro de la Rosa’s HRT on the start/finish straight when he tried to squeeze past the slower car as they passed the pit entry.

Grosjean brushed the barriers and was left with a mangled front wing, and although he did make it back out and do a lap that brought him back inside the cut-off, Daniel Ricciardo pushed him down to P18 moments later.

Vitaly Petrov narrowly beat Caterham team-mate Heikki Kovalainen to P19, the duo lapping half a second clear of Timo Glock’s Marussia.

Despite weather dominating conversation this weekend, the only rain of the afternoon came half an hour before the qualifying. That meant early Q1 laps were on intermediates, but the track was fully dry before the opening segment was over.

However rain is heading towards Sao Paulo on race day and it will be fascinating to see what kind of unexacting results will fall on Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso following their less than ideal qualifying positions.

Qualifying times for the Brazilian Grand Prix, Interlagos:

1.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes     1m12.458s
2.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes     1m12.513s
3.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault     1m12.581s
4.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault     1m12.760s
5.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari              1m12.987s
6.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault     1m13.174s
7.  Nico Hulkenberg       Force India-Mercedes 1m13.206s
8.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari              1m13.253s
9.  Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault        1m13.298s
10.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes             1m13.489s
11.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes 1m14.121s
12.  Bruno Senna           Williams-Renault     1m14.219s
13.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari       1m14.234s
14.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes             1m14.334s
15.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari       1m14.380s
16.  Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m14.574s
17.  Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m14.619s
18.  Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault        1m16.967s
19.  Vitaly Petrov         Caterham-Renault     1m17.073s
20.  Heikki Kovalainen     Caterham-Renault     1m17.086s
21.  Timo Glock            Marussia-Cosworth    1m17.508s
22.  Charles Pic           Marussia-Cosworth    1m18.104s
23.  Narain Karthikeyan    HRT-Cosworth         1m19.576s
24.  Pedro de la Rosa      HRT-Cosworth         1m19.699s

107 per cent time: 1m20.330s

Lewis Hamilton achieved his 21st career victory at the Circuit of the Americans, denying the world championship leader Sebastian Vettel on scoring valuable points.

With Vettel finishing in second and his title rival Fernando Alonso taking third, this season’s Formula One world championship will go down to the wire in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Despite not sealing the title in Austin, Sebastian Vettel’s second position means Red Bull Racing has won the constructors’ championship for the third successive year. An impressive record for the Milton Keynes-based team.

As for Hamilton, this was a great result for the McLaren driver. Won the last United States Grand Prix at Indianapolis in 2007 and five years later, he takes the chequered flag in back-to-back American style at Austin.

Hamilton’s relentless pursuit of Vettel kept tension building throughout the race.

The McLaren lost second to Vettel’s Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber at the start, but soon re-passed the Australian. Webber retired with alternator failure soon afterwards, no doubt prompting nerves in the Red Bull garage.

Vettel’s car was still running smoothly, but it did not have the speed to escape from Hamilton.

The champion pulled out a little gap just before the first pitstops, only for Hamilton to come back with a vengeance once they were both on fresh hard compound tyres.

Hamilton spent most of the middle of the race tantalisingly close to Vettel, but was frustrated time and time again by the Red Bull’s superior traction. The McLaren would close in through the fast first sector, then struggle to get near enough on the DRS zone straight.

Finally on lap 42 Hamilton managed to pull the move off. Vettel moved to the inside, but the McLaren’s straight-line speed advantage was so great that McLaren was comfortable ahead before the next corner – prompting angry radio messages from Vettel regarding the DRS effect and Narain Karthikeyan holding him up while being lapped.

The race was far from over, as Hamilton never quite escaped from Vettel. The Red Bull did not manage to get within striking range and Hamilton was able to win in America for the second time in his career, crossing the finishing line a mere six tenths ahead of Vettel, who at least wrapped up another teams’ title.

Alonso’s progress to third was mostly achieved thanks to a superb start from his controversial grid slot. He then swept around the outside at the uphill first corner to secure fourth, which became third after Webber’s exit.

His Ferrari team-mate Felipe Massa recovered from his generously-accepted P11 on the grid to fourth, showing great race pace throughout.

Massa came under slight threat from Jenson Button late on. The McLaren had fallen right back to P16 on the opening lap, before flying through the field as its tyres came to life. Button ran to lap 35 before pitting, and then battled past the two Lotus cars to secure fifth.

Kimi Raikkonen looked like he might challenge Alonso at one point. Both lost a few seconds at their pitstops, with Raikkonen falling back into traffic and then being overtaken by Massa and Button in the second stint.

Raikkonen finished just ahead of team-mate Romain Grosjean, who recovered well from spinning on lap five then requiring a pitstop on lap nine. He fell right back to P22, but flew thereafter.

Nico Hulkenberg claimed eighth for Force India by fending off battling Williams duo Pastor Maldonado and Bruno Senna. The pair banged wheels at Turn 1 in the closing laps as Maldonado passed his team-mate.

Daniel Ricciardo starred in the first stint, rising from P18 on the grid to fifth by staying out until lap 30. But that tactic did not pay off for Toro Rosso as Ricciardo was only P12 in the end.

Mercedes had a terrible race in Austin. Michael Schumacher was overtaken by rival after rival in the opening stint, falling from fifth on the grid to P14 before his first pitstop. He would require more tyres later on too, leaving him P16, three places behind team-mate Nico Rosberg.

Just 13 points separate Vettel and Alonso with the former as the title favourite heading into next weekend’s finale at Interlagos. Whatever happens, both drivers had done a brilliant job this season. Best of luck to the champions in Brazil.

United States Grand Prix race results after 56 laps:

1.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes           1h35:55.269
2.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault           +0.675
3.  Alonso        Ferrari                    +39.229
4.  Massa         Ferrari                    +46.013
5.  Button        McLaren-Mercedes           +56.432
6.  Raikkonen     Lotus-Renault              +1:04.425
7.  Grosjean      Lotus-Renault              +1:10.313
8.  Hulkenberg    Force India-Mercedes       +1:13.792
9.  Maldonado     Williams-Renault           +1:14.525
10.  Senna         Williams-Renault           +1:15.133
11.  Perez         Sauber-Ferrari             +1:24.341
12.  Ricciardo     Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +1:24.871
13.  Rosberg       Mercedes                   +1:25.510
14.  Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari             +1 lap
15.  Di Resta      Force India-Mercedes       +1 lap
16.  Schumacher    Mercedes                   +1 lap
17.  Petrov        Caterham-Renault           +1 lap
18.  Kovalainen    Caterham-Renault           +1 lap
19.  Glock         Marussia-Cosworth          +1 lap
20.  Pic           Marussia-Cosworth          +2 laps
21.  De la Rosa    HRT-Cosworth               +2 laps
22.  Karthikeyan   HRT-Cosworth               +2 laps

Fastest lap: Vettel, 1:39.347

Not classified/retirements:

Webber        Red Bull-Renault             17 laps
Vergne        Toro Rosso-Ferrari           15 laps

World Championship standings, round 19:

Drivers:
1.  Vettel       273
2.  Alonso       260
3.  Raikkonen    206
4.  Hamilton     190
5.  Webber       167
6.  Button       163
7.  Massa        107
8.  Grosjean      96
9.  Rosberg       93
10.  Perez         66
11.  Kobayashi     58
12.  Hulkenberg    53
13.  Di Resta      46
14.  Maldonado     45
15.  Schumacher    43
16.  Senna         31
17.  Vergne        12
18.  Ricciardo     10

Constructors:
1.  Red Bull-Renault          440
2.  Ferrari                   367
3.  McLaren-Mercedes          353
4.  Lotus-Renault             302
5.  Mercedes                  136
6.  Sauber-Ferrari            124
7.  Force India-Mercedes       99
8.  Williams-Renault           76
9.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari         22

Next race: Brazilian Grand Prix, Interlagos. November 23-25.

Championship leader Sebastian Vettel is edging closer to his third drivers’ title after taking pole position at the Circuit of the Americans.

The Red Bull driver was quickest in all three practice sessions at Austin and he underlined the superior performance in the Renault-powered RB8 to take his 35th career pole at Austin, Texas.

His title rival Fernando Alonso could only managed ninth in the Ferrari.

In a Q3 battle that saw everyone driving around on long runs trying to bring their tyres to life, Vettel put in a lap of one minute, 35.877 seconds.

There was two minutes to the chequered flag and he nearly got upstaged by Lewis Hamilton. The margin between the Red Bull and McLaren was only 0.051 seconds.

Vettel started another flying lap and went quick still, crossing the start/finish line at one minute, 35.657 seconds.

Hamilton was still setting very competitive sector times on his final attempt, but in the end, fell up a tenth short.

However, the McLaren driver still prevented an all-Red Bull front row, forcing Mark Webber down to third.

Lotus showed very strong form in fourth and fifth with Romain Grosjean and Kimi Raikkonen, although the former will drop back five positions due to a gearbox change penalty.

That will elevate Michael Schumacher into the top five. Just as his Formula One career appeared to be limping to a depressing end, the seven-time champion showed great form throughout Austin qualifying to go sixth quickest.

Alonso struggled to make his Ferrari’s tyres work in Q3, weaving frantically between flying laps.

His Scuderia team-mate Felipe Massa managed better and took seventh position, with Alonso back in ninth between the Force India of Nico Hulkenberg and the Williams of Pastor Maldonado.

This was not the ideal scenario for Alonso. Starting on the dirty side of the grid while his main championship rival starts from the front.

Hamilton was the only McLaren in the top ten shoot-out. An apparent throttle problem left Jenson Button crawling back to the pits in Q2, and he was pushed down to P12.

Jean-Eric Vergne’s P14 marked his best qualifying result since the Spanish Grand Prix. The Frenchman has been eliminated in Q1 eight times this year, but at Austin it was his Toro Rosso team-mate Daniel Ricciardo who dropped out.

Q3 remained elusive for Bruno Senna and Paul di Resta, who were P11 and P13 as their respective team-mates Maldonado and Hulkenberg made it to the final segment.

Sauber had been among the teams most concerned about tyre warm-up issues following practice and in qualifying, those problems became a big issue. Sergio Perez – racing in front of a large Mexican spectator contingent – and Kamui Kobayashi were a long way off the pace in P15 and P16.

Nico Rosberg was a full 1.4 seconds slower compared to his Mercedes team-mate Schumacher in Q2, and that resulted in a disappointing P17.

Marussia ended Q1 in a positive mood after beating Caterham. Both Timo Glock and Charles Pic were quicker than the leading Caterham of Vitaly Petrov. In fact, the margin was 0.8 seconds based on Glock’s lap time.

Despite its troubled start to the United States Grand Prix weekend, and Narain Karthikeyan parking at Turn 2 with a mechanical problem, HRT got both cars within the 107 per cent qualifying margin with several tenths to spare.

Qualifying positions for the United States Grand Prix:

1.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault     1m35.657s
2.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes     1m35.766s
3.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault     1m36.174s
4.  Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault        1m36.708s
5.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes             1m36.794s
6.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari              1m36.937s
7.  Nico Hulkenberg       Force India-Mercedes 1m37.141s
8.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari              1m37.300s
9.  Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault        1m36.587s*
10.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault     1m37.842s
11.  Bruno Senna           Williams-Renault     1m37.604s
12.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes     1m37.616s
13.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes 1m37.665s
14.  Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m37.879s
15.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari       1m38.206s
16.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari       1m38.437s
17.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes             1m38.501s
18.  Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m39.114s
19.  Timo Glock            Marussia-Cosworth    1m40.056s
20.  Charles Pic           Marussia-Cosworth    1m40.664s
21.  Vitaly Petrov         Caterham-Renault     1m40.809s
22.  Heikki Kovalainen     Caterham-Renault     1m41.166s
23.  Pedro de la Rosa      HRT-Cosworth         1m42.011s
24.  Narain Karthikeyan    HRT-Cosworth         1m42.740s

107 per cent time: 1m43.317s

*Five-place penalty for gearbox change

Kimi Raikkonen achieved his first win since making his Formula One comeback with a dramatic and thrilling Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

The Iceman held off Fernando Alonso to score the first win for the Lotus F1 Team. By winning the Yas Marina race, the famous Lotus name is back on top since Ayrton Senna in 1987.

As for Sebastian Vettel, the reigning world champion made it through from last to finish in an excellent third. This result means he still retains the lead by ten points with two races to go, despite an incident-packed race for the Red Bull driver.

Raikkonen’s victory is his first since he won the 2009 Belgian Grand Prix, the first for his Enstone-based team since the 2008 Japanese Grand Prix, and the first for a Lotus-branded outfit since the 1987 United States Grand Prix.

Poleman Lewis Hamilton looked set to dominate for McLaren at first, escaping an early mistake (outbraking himself) that allowed Raikkonen to briefly get alongside him and then pulling away.

Pastor Maldonado held third position, while Alonso muscled past the slow-starting Mark Webber for fourth with a bold outside line move at Turn 11 on the first lap.

The path seemed to be opening up quickly for Vettel, helped by first-lap mayhem that saw the Force Indias tangle with Bruno Senna, and Nico Rosberg and Romain Grosjean collide.

The recovering Rosberg then caused the first safety car on lap nine when his Mercedes was violently launched over the back of Narain Karthikeyan’s slowing HRT. Both drivers escaped unhurt.

By that time Vettel was up to P13, but during the caution period he ran off-track avoiding Daniel Ricciardo and smashing into a DRS sign. This did terminal damage to a front wing already battered from contact with Senna, and Vettel had to pit.

Hamilton stayed ahead easily at the restart, only to drop out of the race with a loss of fuel pressure on lap 19.

That left Raikkonen in charge, with Alonso the first of several drivers to pass a fading Maldonado before the pitstops. Webber’s attempt to do likewise would see contact and a spin.

With Vettel having got a tyre change out of the way when replacing his front wing, the German was up to second behind Raikkonen as others pitted. There was speculation among rivals that Vettel might try to keep his soft tyres alive until the end, but he pitted for fresh set of Pirellis and dropped to fourth behind Alonso and Jenson Button.

Another safety car then followed when a spectacular battle between Paul di Resta, Grosjean and Sergio Perez ended with contact between the latter pair and Grosjean’s slowing car collecting the luckless Webber.

That closed Raikkonen, Alonso, Button and Vettel up for a 12-lap sprint to the finish.

Initially the pressure was on Alonso, but soon he was pulling clear of Button and mounting a late charge towards Raikkonen, as Vettel put huge pressure on the McLaren.

The reigning champion eventually took third with four laps to the flag. Alonso was out of reach, though, the Ferrari finishing right on Raikkonen’s tail.

Maldonado took fifth ahead of Kamui Kobayashi and Felipe Massa, who spun down the order while fighting with Webber.

Senna and di Resta recovered from their dramas to take eighth and ninth, with Ricciardo the final scorer.

So an exciting race at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. In terms of the world championship, Vettel has a ten-point lead over Alonso while Red Bull Racing only needs four points (an eighth place finish) to seal the constructors’ title.

Formula One takes a trip to the unknown with a race at the new Circuit of The Americas in Austin. If Sebastian Vettel wins with Fernando Alonso finishing fifth or lower, then the Red Bull driver will become the 2012 champion.

Abu Dhabi race results, after 55 laps:

1.  Raikkonen     Lotus-Renault              1h45:58.667
2.  Alonso        Ferrari                    +0.852
3.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault           +4.163
4.  Button        McLaren-Mercedes           +7.787
5.  Maldonado     Williams-Renault           +13.007
6.  Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari             +20.076
7.  Massa         Ferrari                    +22.896
8.  Senna         Williams-Renault           +23.542
9.  Di Resta      Force India-Mercedes       +24.160
10.  Ricciardo     Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +27.400
11.  Schumacher    Mercedes                   +28.000
12.  Vergne        Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +34.900
13.  Kovalainen    Caterham-Renault           +47.700
14.  Glock         Marussia-Cosworth          +56.400
15.  Perez         Sauber-Ferrari             +56.700
16.  Petrov        Caterham-Renault           +1:04.500
17.  De la Rosa    HRT-Cosworth               +1:11.5

Fastest lap: Vettel, 1:43.964

Not classified/retirements:

Pic           Marussia-Cosworth            42 laps
Grosjean      Lotus-Renault                38 laps
Webber        Red Bull-Renault             38 laps
Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes             20 laps
Karthikeyan   HRT-Cosworth                 8 laps
Rosberg       Mercedes                     8 laps
Hulkenberg    Force India-Mercedes         1 lap

World Championship standings, round 18:

Drivers:
1.  Vettel       255
2.  Alonso       245
3.  Raikkonen    198
4.  Webber       167
5.  Hamilton     165
6.  Button       153
7.  Massa         95
8.  Rosberg       93
9.  Grosjean      90
10.  Perez         66
11.  Kobayashi     58
12.  Hulkenberg    49
13.  Di Resta      46
14.  Maldonado     43
15.  Schumacher    43
16.  Senna         30
17.  Vergne        12
18.  Ricciardo     10

Constructors:
1.  Red Bull-Renault          422
2.  Ferrari                   340
3.  McLaren-Mercedes          318
4.  Lotus-Renault             288
5.  Mercedes                  136
6.  Sauber-Ferrari            124
7.  Force India-Mercedes       95
8.  Williams-Renault           73
9.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari         22

Next race: United States Grand Prix, Circuit of Americas. November 16-18.

Lewis Hamilton achieved his sixth pole position of the season with a dominant qualifying display at the Yas Marina circuit.

The McLaren driver was fastest in all three qualifying sessions to score his 25th career pole and in doing so, halted Red Bull Racing’s run of qualifying dominance.

It was a disappointing session for both Formula One’s title contenders, with Sebastian Vettel only third behind his team-mate Mark Webber, but at least it was better than his Ferrari rival Fernando Alonso, who could only manage seventh fastest.

Hamilton had been quickest in two of the three practice sessions at Abu Dhabi, led Q1 and Q2, then produced a time of one minute, 40.630 seconds early in Q3 to immediately put himself four tenths of a second clear of his opposition.

A second pole shot might have been faster still, but once it became clear that Hamilton’s rivals had no answer to his pace, the McLaren driver backed off and pitted.

Webber’s lap of one minute, 40.978 seconds pushed Vettel off the front row. The championship leader – hampered by a substantial loss of practice mileage with a brake issue – had pushed hard throughout qualifying. Including brushing a barrier in Q1, flying over the kerbs in Q2, and then stopping on track after his unsuccessful final flying lap in Q3.

Vettel was forced to stop his Red Bull due to low fuel and after nearly five hours since qualifying was decided, the race stewards have penalised the world championship leader due to a low fuel sample. He will start Sunday’s race at the back of the grid.

Pastor Maldonado delivered a strong qualifying result for Williams by grabbing fourth position on the grid.

Kimi Raikkonen improved to fifth for Lotus on his second Q3 run, with Jenson Button making similar gains to take sixth. Button had been as low as ninth at one point in qualifying, but a five-place and six tenths of a second margin to his McLaren team-mate will not please the 2009 world champion.

Alonso held fourth after the early Q3 runs, only to be shoved down to a potentially costly seventh as others improved. His Ferrari team-mate Felipe Massa will start ninth, ahead of Romain Grosjean’s Lotus.

Nico Rosberg did just a single qualifying run in Q3 and initially held fifth, before falling to eighth when his rivals came out again. Rosberg’s performance was a boost for Mercedes on what had looked like being another disappointing weekend. His team-mate Michael Schumacher was only P14, amid mutual apologies from team to driver over the radio.

Force India and Sauber could not reach the top ten this time around with Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez filling row six. Paul di Resta qualified in P13 in his new chassis while Kamui Kobayashi was six tenths down on Perez in P16 after locking up on his last lap.

Bruno Senna’s run of tepid qualifying performances continued with P14, four tenths slower than his Williams team-mate Maldonado in Q2.

Having appeared to conquer his qualifying problems during the 2012 season, Jean-Eric Vergne notched up his second straight Q1 exit – his eighth of the year – in Abu Dhabi.

The recently re-signed Toro Rosso driver was on course to make the cut before spinning. Vergne pushed on for another lap, but his abused tyres had no more pace to offer. His team-mate Daniel Ricciardo brought up the rear of the Q2 field in P17.

Marussia pushed Caterham hard in the battle at the back of the field. Although Heikki Kovalainen emerged in front again, he was only a tenth ahead of Charles Pic.

Vitaly Petrov was right in the fight in the other Caterham, but Timo Glock was puzzled by a relative lack of speed from his Marussia as he beat only the back-row HRTs.

Qualifying positions for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix:

1.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes     1m40.630s
2.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault     1m40.978s
3.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault     1m41.226s
4.  Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault        1m41.260s
5.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes     1m41.290s
6.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari              1m41.582s
7.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes             1m41.603s
8.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari              1m41.723s
9.  Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault        1m41.778s
10.  Nico Hulkenberg       Force India-Mercedes 1m42.019s
11.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari       1m42.084s
12.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes 1m42.218s
13.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes             1m42.289s
14.  Bruno Senna           Williams-Renault     1m42.330s
15.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari       1m42.606s
16.  Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m42.765s
17.  Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m44.058s
18.  Heikki Kovalainen     Caterham-Renault     1m44.956s
19.  Charles Pic           Marussia-Cosworth    1m45.089s
20.  Vitaly Petrov         Caterham-Renault     1m45.151s
21.  Timo Glock            Marussia-Cosworth    1m45.426s
22.  Pedro de la Rosa      HRT-Cosworth         1m45.766s
23.  Narain Karthikeyan    HRT-Cosworth         1m46.382s
24.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault     1m41.073s*

107 per cent time: 1m48.601s

*Grid penalty for low fuel sample

Sebastian Vettel extends his lead in the Formula One world championship to 13 points with a fourth consecutive victory in the Indian Grand Prix.

By winning the Buddh International Circuit, his 26th career in the sport, the German has set new records by becoming the first driver to lead three races from start-to-finish since Ayrton Senna in 1989. In addition, he has led for 206 consecutive laps when compared to Senna’s 264.

As for his championship rival Fernando Alonso, the Ferrari driver drove a fantastic race to minimise the damage to his title bid by battling through to second position.

Red Bull’s rivals may have claimed pre-race that they were determined to prevent Vettel making a clean break, but the champion team actually looked more dominant than ever on lap one, as Vettel and Mark Webber disappeared into the distance while the McLarens and Ferraris battle with each other.

Alonso managed to draft past both Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button on the long straight thanks to the Ferrari’s superior straight-line speed, then saw them go back around him – one either side – at Turn 4.

Button came out best and took third, with Alonso managing to get back past Hamilton into fourth position.

Alonso then overtook Button for third place as soon as DRS became available. Hamilton did likewise soon afterwards.

Third seemed to be Alonso’s limit until the second half of the race, when Webber began drifting off Vettel’s superior pace and into the sight of the Spaniard’s Ferrari.

As Webber reported a lack of KERS, Alonso stepped up his chase despite the issue in trying to conserve fuel.

With ten laps to go, Alonso was able to use his superior straight-line speed advantage to breeze past Webber.

As for Vettel, there were some unusual sparks appearing under Vettel’s car and it will be interesting to see if his RB8 will pass post-race scrutineering. The plank must be at a minimum width and any wear could result in disqualification.

The most impressive action was in the pits, in particular Lewis Hamilton pit stop that required a rapidly fitted new steering wheel as well a new set of Pirellis. All five wheels were changed in just 3.1 seconds.

Lewis Hamilton gave chase after Mark Webber in the final moments but could not separate the Red Bull from the podium.

Button finished in a lonely fifth, losing valuable time behind a yet-to-stop Romain Grosjean.

Felipe Massa resisted Kimi Raikkonen for sixth. The Lotus jumped the Ferrari by pitting one lap later, only for Massa to use DRS to immediately re-pass his rival.

Grosjean fell into the midfield at the start, then recovered with some successful overtaking and by running until lap 36 before pitting for a fresh set of soft compounds from Pirelli.

The Lotus got back up to ninth position, chasing Nico Hulkenberg’s Force India.

Hulkenberg had initially sparred with Sergio Perez, but the Sauber made an early pitstop then retired after picking up a puncture while fighting with Daniel Ricciardo’s.

Perez was one of three drivers who sustained tyre damage in combat. Jean-Eric Vergne tagged Michael Schumacher at the first corner of the race, breaking the Toro Rosso’s wing and slicing into the rear tyre on the Mercedes.

Pastor Maldonado also got a puncture in a tussle with Kamui Kobayashi. But Bruno Senna saved the Williams team day with an assertive drive to tenth that included a late pass on Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes.

So not the most dramatic Indian Grand Prix and yet in terms of the championship, only 13 points separate race winner Sebastian Vettel and runner-up Fernando Alonso with only three races left.

As for the battle in the constructors’ championship, Red Bull Racing extends their lead and could win the title unless Ferrari outscores them by five points or McLaren by 15.

Indian Grand Prix race results after 60 laps:

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

Fastest lap: Button, 1:28.203

Not classified/retirements:

De la Rosa    HRT-Cosworth                 41 laps
Perez         Sauber-Ferrari               21 laps

World Championship standings, round 17:

Drivers:
1.  Vettel       240
2.  Alonso       227
3.  Raikkonen    173
4.  Webber       167
5.  Hamilton     165
6.  Button       141
7.  Rosberg       93
8.  Grosjean      90
9.  Massa         89
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

Constructors:
1.  Red Bull-Renault          407
2.  Ferrari                   316
3.  McLaren-Mercedes          306
4.  Lotus-Renault             263
5.  Mercedes                  136
6.  Sauber-Ferrari            116
7.  Force India-Mercedes       93
8.  Williams-Renault           59
9.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari         21

Next race: Abu Dhabi, Yas Marina. November 2-4.

Sebastian Vettel underlined his superior practice performance at the Buddh International Circuit by leading Red Bull Racing to its third consecutive front row.

The championship leader, who took over the lead from Fernando Alonso after his victory in Korea, actually made a mistake on his first Q3 run.

Unfazed by the error at Turn 7, Vettel responded with a time of one minute, 25.283 seconds on his second run to beat team-mate Mark Webber to pole. Webber’s challenge was then compromised by a mistake at Turn 3.

Vettel stayed out just in case he had to defend his qualifying status, before abandoning the lap once it became clear he was out of reach. By taking the top spot at the Indian Grand Prix, Sebastian Vettel is now third in all-time record list with 35 pole positions.

As for his championship rival, Fernando Alonso starts back in fifth.

The McLarens of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button filled row two, pushing the Ferraris of Alonso and Felipe Massa down to row three.

Kimi Raikkonen’s Lotus and the Sauber of Sergio Perez will share row four.

Despite the fear that the Williams team lacked qualifying pace this weekend, Pastor Maldonado made it through into Q3 and took ninth.

Nico Rosberg also reached the pole shoot-out but did not set a time in the Mercedes.

Several teams saw one of their drivers reach the top ten while the other ended up in the midfield.

Romain Grosjean was pushed outside the Q3 cut late on, leaving him in P11.

Bruno Senna’s promising start to Q2 did not translate into a top ten appearance and will start the race in P13.

As for Michael Schumacher, the seven-time world champion lacked speed compared to his Mercedes team-mate Rosberg (six tenths of a second) and could only qualify in P14.

There were big intra-teams gaps for Force India and Sauber too, with seven tenths splitting Nico Hulkenberg in P12 and Paul di Resta in P16, and Kamui Kobayashi a long way off emulating Perez’s Q3 form in P17.

Jean-Eric Vergne was again eliminated in Q1. Heikki Kovalainen spun into the gravel at the end of the opening segment, leaving his Caterham team-mate Vitaly Petrov free to lead the tail-end pack.

So another dominant performance by Sebastian Vettel at India. Fastest in all three practice sessions and now pole position. Looking really good for another race victory and extending his championship lead over Fernando Alonso.

Qualifying positions at the Buddh International Circuit:

1.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault     1m25.283
2.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault     1m25.327
3.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes     1m25.544
4.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes     1m25.659
5.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari              1m25.773
6.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari              1m25.857
7.  Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault        1m26.236
8.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari       1m26.360
9.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault     1m26.713
10.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes             no time
11. Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault        1m26.136s
12.  Nico Hulkenberg       Force India-Mercede  1m26.241s
13.  Bruno Senna           Williams-Renault     1m26.331s
14.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes             1m26.574s
15.  Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m26.777s
16.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercede  1m26.989s
17.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari       1m27.219s
18.  Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m27.525s
19.  Vitaly Petrov         Caterham-Renault     1m28.756s
20.  Heikki Kovalainen     Caterham-Renault     1m29.500s
21.  Timo Glock            Marussia-Cosworth    1m29.613s
22.  Pedro de la Rosa      HRT-Cosworth         1m30.592s
23.  Narain Karthikeyan    HRT-Cosworth         1m30.593s
24.  Charles Pic           Marussia-Cosworth    1m30.662s

107 per cent time: 1m32.071s

Sebastian Vettel now leads the Formula One world championship following his 25th career victory in the Korean Grand Prix.

By winning the race – his third consecutive for Red Bull and the team’s first one-two with Mark Webber taking second – the reigning world champion now has a six-point advantage over Fernando Alonso, who had led the majority this season.

Pole sitter Webber immediately lost the lead to his team-mate right off the line, and after fending off the Australian’s attempted retaliation at Turn 3, the 25-year-old German was free to pull away. His lead got up to around ten seconds before he focused on nursing his tyres to the chequered flag.

Fernando Alonso muscled his way up to third position in a busy opening lap, but was unable to match the superior race pace from the flying Red Bulls, to take the final step on the podium.

McLaren had a disastrous race, as Jenson Button was taken out on the first lap when Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi hit both Button and Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes at Turn 3.

Lewis Hamilton ran fourth behind Alonso in the first stint before losing pace on his second set of tyres. The McLaren driver was overtaken by both Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen before switching to a three-stop strategy.

That left Hamilton back in tenth, his efforts to recover positions wasn’t successful when he picked up a large piece of astroturf in the final laps.

Having overtaken Hamilton, Massa closed in on his Scuderia team-mate. The Brazilian received a radio message requesting to hold formation and duly finished fourth, ahead of Raikkonen’s Lotus.

Nico Hulkenberg drove an excellent race in the Force India to take sixth position, delivering one of the most exciting moments if honest tedious race when he passed both Romain Grosjean and Hamilton in one sweep as the Lotus and McLaren diced. Grosjean eventually finished in seventh.

Toro Rosso also had a superb race with Jean-Eric Vergne and Daniel Ricciardo coming through from their lowly grid positions to eighth and ninth. Although the pair switched places late on as Ricciardo’s tyres faded away… Hamilton’s astroturf drama meant the McLaren fell back after putting the Toro Rosso duo under heavy pressure.

As for Mercedes, this was a disappointing race from the Silver Arrows with Michael Schumacher lacking pace throughout while Nico Rosberg was forced to retire early following a hit from behind by Kamui Kobayashi.

So not a classic Korean Grand Prix but in terms of the world championship it is quite significant. Sebastian Vettel’s victory means he now leads with 215 points, with Fernando Alonso now on 209 followed by Kimi Raikkonen with 167, Lewis Hamilton on 153 and Mark Webber with 152 points.

In the constructors’ standings, Red Bull Racing extend their lead with 367 points with Ferrari moving up ahead of McLaren with 290 over 284.

Korean Grand Prix race results, after 55 laps:
1.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault           1h36:28.651
2.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault           +8.231
3.  Alonso        Ferrari                    +13.944
4.  Massa         Ferrari                    +20.168
5.  Raikkonen     Lotus-Renault              +36.739
6.  Hulkenberg    Force India-Mercedes       +45.301
7.  Grosjean      Lotus-Renault              +54.812
8.  Vergne        Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +1:09.589
9.  Ricciardo     Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +1:11.787
10.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes           +1:19.692
11.  Perez         Sauber-Ferrari             +1:20.062
12.  Di Resta      Force India-Mercedes       +1:24.448
13.  Schumacher    Mercedes                   +1:29.241
14.  Maldonado     Williams-Renault           +1:34.924
15.  Senna         Williams-Renault           +1:36.902
16.  Petrov        Caterham-Renault           +1 lap
17.  Kovalainen    Caterham-Renault           +1 lap
18.  Glock         Marussia-Cosworth          +1 lap
19.  Pic           Marussia-Cosworth          +2 lap
20.  Karthikeyan   HRT-Cosworth               +2 laps

Fastest lap: Webber, 1:42.037

Not classified/retirements:
De la Rosa    HRT-Cosworth                 17 laps
Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari               17 laps
Rosberg       Mercedes                     2 lap
Button        McLaren-Mercedes             1 lap

World Championship standings, round 16:                

Drivers:       
1.  Vettel       215
2.  Alonso       209
3.  Raikkonen    167
4.  Hamilton     153
5.  Webber       152
6.  Button       131
7.  Rosberg       93
8.  Grosjean      88
9.  Massa         81
10.  Perez         66
11.  Kobayashi     50
12.  Hulkenberg    45
13.  Di Resta      44
14.  Schumacher    43
15.  Maldonado     33
16.  Senna         25
17.  Vergne        12
18.  Ricciardo      9

Constructors:
1.  Red Bull-Renault          367
2.  Ferrari                   290
3.  McLaren-Mercedes          284
4.  Lotus-Renault             255
5.  Mercedes                  136
6.  Sauber-Ferrari            116
7.  Force India-Mercedes       89
8.  Williams-Renault           58
9.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari         21

Next race: Indian Grand Prix, New Delhi. October 26-28.

Mark Webber claimed a surprising pole position at the Korean Grand Prix, edging out his team-mate Sebastian Vettel to take Red Bull Racing’s 44th in the sport.

The Australian upstaged pace-setter Vettel with a brilliant Q3 lap. It seemed the reigning world champion was heading for his 35th career of poles after setting the fastest time in Q1 and Q2.

In fact, the 25-year-old German’s first Q3 lap was three tenths of a second clear of the opposition.

But then Webber, who had been third in the provisional order, found a half-second improvement on his last pole attempt to set a time of one minute, 37.242 seconds.

The result was also the 200th Formula One pole for Red Bull’s engine supplier Renault.

Vettel’s response was simply not fast enough, with a poor first sector preventing the German from improving on his earlier mark. That ensured pole for Webber by 0.074 seconds, despite his software glitch.

Fernando Alonso was initially in second position following his first Q1 run, but Webber’s pole lap and an improvement from Lewis Hamilton’s McLaren pushed the championship leader back down to fourth.

Lotus showed better form with Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean taking fifth and seventh in their upgraded cars, featuring the Coanda exhaust. The black and gold cars will sandwich in between the Ferrari of Felipe Massa.

Nico Hulkenberg took his Force India to eighth, beating the Silver Arrows of Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher.

There could have been several surprises in the early part of qualifying, but in the end the only major upset was that Jenson Button did not make Q3.

The McLaren driver’s first Q2 lap was compromised by an error, and then he missed the cut by 0.013 seconds when Jenson had to back off on his second run as yellows flew for Daniel Ricciardo’s Toro Rosso parking with a gearbox issue.

Had the end of Q1 worked out differently, neither McLaren would have reached the top ten shootout. As Hamilton was one of few drivers not to use the super softs in Q1, and as others found big gains on the quicker Pirelli, his early time meant he was only 17th fastest.

The McLaren was sat in the pits and was unable to respond due to the time limit, but Hamilton escaped a shock elimination as Bruno Senna’s final lap was not good enough, leaving the Williams down with the Caterhams, Marussias and HRTs. Senna’s team-mate Pastor Maldonado fared only marginally better, qualifying in P15.

Alonso did use super softs and had to do two runs in Q1, yet that was only 16th quickest… There were no such problems for either Hamilton or Alonso in Q2, though.

Sauber had to settle for P12 and P13, while Paul di Resta blamed traffic as his Force India ended up only P14.

While at the back, Narain Karthikeyan did not set a time due to brake problems with his HRT. As for Charles Pic, the Marussia driver qualified in P21 but will take engine penalty meaning he will start last on the grid.

Qualifying positions for the Korean Grand Prix:

1.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault     1m37.242s
2.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault     1m37.316s
3.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes     1m37.469s
4.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari              1m37.534s
5.  Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault        1m37.625s
6.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari              1m37.884s
7.  Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault        1m37.934s
8.  Nico Hulkenberg       Force India-Mercedes 1m38.266s
9.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes             1m38.361s
10.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes             1m38.513s
11.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes     1m38.441s
12.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari       1m38.460s
13.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari       1m38.594s
14.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes 1m38.643s
15.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault     1m38.725s
16.  Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m39.084s
17.  Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m39.340s
18.  Bruno Senna           Williams-Renault     1m39.443s
19.  Vitaly Petrov         Caterham-Renault     1m40.207s
20.  Heikki Kovalainen     Caterham-Renault     1m40.333s
21.  Timo Glock            Marussia-Cosworth    1m41.371s
22.  Pedro de la Rosa      HRT-Cosworth         1m42.881s
23.  Narain Karthikeyan    HRT-Cosworth         no time*
24.  Charles Pic           Marussia-Cosworth    1m41.317s**

107 per cent time: 1m45.082s

*Did not set a time, requires dispensation from stewards to start
**Ten-place penalty due to engine change