~ Indian Grand Prix: Its him again as dominant Sebastian Vettel secures pole ~ It had to be him: Sebastian Vettel is on the cusp of a fourth successive F1 World Championship after claiming pole position ahead of Lewis Hamilton for the Indian GP as the Red Bull driver seeks to clinch his latest title triumph in perfect fashion. Driving into the record books with relentless supremacy, it is a racing certainty that Vettel will clinch his fourth successive title in Sundays race at a circuit where he proved unbeatable on F1s two previous visits. The only question is how, although its already abundantly clear that Vettel is determined to secure the status of quadruple champion in perfect fashion: fastest in Practice One, fastest in Practice Two, fastest in Practice Three, Vettels remaining ambition will be to follow up pole position with a lights-to-flag victory with the races fastest lap thrown in for good measure. Yet with Red Bull opting to split their strategies, its no longer likely that Vettel will depart India on Sunday night as the only F1 driver to lead a race at the Buddh International Circuit. With Mark Webber electing - in part, surely, because he accepted he couldnt beat Vettel in a straight single-lap sprint - to throw in a strategic curveball by qualifying on the medium compound, the Aussie is bound to lead the race during the early stages of Sundays grand prix once Vettel and the two Mercedes cars of Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton have pitted to shed the faster but more brittle soft tyres. I thought it was worth trying something different. We didnt think wed end up on the second row, we thought wed be a little further back than that. In the end, it turned out to be a pretty good session for us and were in a good position to capitalise because we know the option tyre isnt a great piece of work, Webber told Sky Sports F1 afterwards. It will look quite exciting at the start of the race, but obviously Ive got to get that tyre out of the way at some stage of the race. Its not F1 as it should be, but the vast discrepancy in performance between the two tyres taken to the Buddh International Circuit this weekend by Pirelli, and the consequential strategic juggling act, will at least give Vettel something to think about even if he withstands Mercedes attack into the first corner. Quite what the thinking was at Lotus during Q1 is anyones guess as the teams decision to only deploy Romain Grosjean, Red Bulls scourge last week in Japan, on the medium compound spectacularly backfired. We ***ed up was Grosjeans suitably blunt assessment of the teams blunder after failing to progress along with the Marussias, Caterhams and his potential 2014 team-mate, Pastor Maldonado. Its understood that Nico Hulkenberg is now in a head-to-head fight with the sponsorship-laden Maldonado to replace the Ferrari-bound Kimi Raikkonen at Lotus and the increasingly-impressive German once again endorsed his claim to land a top-tier seat as he propelled his Sauber to seventh. Hulkenberg will thus line-up between future Ferrari team-mates Fernando Alonso and Raikkonen, with the Spaniard was once again out-paced by the departing Felipe Massa - the fourth such ignominy Alonso has endured since the summer break, although on this occasion he had the clear excuse of running the medium tyres while Massa used the softs. When the music stops, meanwhile, and the composition of the 2014 grid is finally confirmed, it may be the case that Hulkenberg opts to return to Force India, possibly at the expense of Paul di Resta, while Massa takes Maldonados seat at Williams. With Vettels on-track dominance a near-permanent feature since the summer break, such contrasting off-track uncertainty has assumed the dimensions of a welcome relief. On Sunday, though, there is unlikely to be any welcome relief for his rivals from Vettel when Sebastian will surely go fourth.
Posted on: Sat, 26 Oct 2013 10:48:31 +0000
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