At 14:30 India time, the green lights came on and the drivers began to march through the pit lane, doing the last tests before heading out to the grill. Sebastian Vettel once again in this season, in front of his place on the grid only had the five lights, and an excellent opportunity to achieve his fourth title of world champion in Formula 1. He just needed to finish the race with 75 points ahead of Fernando Alonso, and bearing in mind that before starting he was 90, things looked very good for the German, who was sure to go for the victory without taking the calculator. The constructors’ championship was also very near for Red Bull, they couldn’t afford to lose 19 points with 29 with Ferrari and Mercedes in this race, it could give them the title already.
The start was great for Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton Fernando Alonso had a little touch with Mark Webber after the first corner, damaging his front wing. In the long straight before Turn 4, Felipe Massa has displayed a very good top speed and has passed both Mercedes at a time to be second, and Rosberg heading him back to Hamilton who stood third. At the end of the first lap, Paul di Resta and Jean Eric Vergne have gotten rid of the soft tyre and have mounted the mediums, while Sebastian Vettel came to box in lap 2 to do the same, very peculiar strategy that made him lose many positions and left Felipe Massa as race leader. Fernando Alonso also entered to boxes to fix the damage in his car, his strategy was going to hell and in later laps he complained of a strong understeer in the curves. Except Grosjean, the other drivers who had started with the soft had been taken them away on lap 10 (Rosberg, Hamilton, Raikkonen, Hulkenberg, Maldonado, Pic, Van der Garde and Bianchi). While Jenson Button was in the weirdest strategy of the day, changing his tyres into soft on lap 7 to come back to the mediums in lap 13.
Among overtaking and tickets to box, Vettel had already overtaken drivers to get himself in third place on lap 15, 12 seconds behind Webber, his main rival, and 10 ahead of Massa and Mercedes. Sergio Perez was second but had not yet stopped and had to ride the softs, so things got not too expensive for Vettel, who started doing laps, maintaining a demolishing rate that Webber was the only one able to keep, but he lost time at the start of the race and this left very few options to the Australian. Gutierrez received a Drive Through for his jump start. Vettel came close to Perez who did not wasted no time moving forward.
Rosberg and Massa engaged themselves in a fight for sixth place (although virtually was the fight for the podium) , Mercedes decided to call Rosberg to box in lap 28, allowing Massa to overtake him. Then almost every driver entered to boxes, all with a similar strategy of two stops due to the large amount of time that is lost in a stop (over 20 seconds). Webber chose to do his stint of soft between laps 29 and 33, while Vettel made his final stop on the 31. As a result , the German faced the last 27 laps with 13 seconds lead at the top , with Fernando Alonso battling in middle grid, giving the title to Vettel. Misfortune came to Webber (as usual), when the team made him stop the car by a fault in the differential. In Lotus they chose a strategy of one-stop despite the high degradation of the soft compound. Raikkonen endured a lot in the second, but Nico Rosberg had no plug and Massa came with a terrific pace, the fastest on the track many times. Finally, Räikkönen looked like after his tyres but it was too late because he lost his position with Nico Rosberg, but he would come to be him again in an intense battle with his Frenchman teammate ahead. Räikkönen’s car gave up in a way, and the Finn had to change the tyres two laps before the end of the race.
Vettel reached the end with a big lead and managed his fourth world title with a incontestable superiority, coupled with untouchable driving in a team that has done a great job once again, the German has got the best out of his hands and car. Nico Rosberg crossed the line second after a great race ahead of Grosjean, who had started the race from P17. Felipe Massa came fourth with a good race and Perez was fifth. The points took by Massa made Ferrari achieve a new record by scoring 64 points straight in races. Hamilton suffered with the tyres and at the end he could only be sixth ahead of Raikkonen, who had the fastest lap in the final lap. Di Resta was eighth, also with a one-stop strategy. Ricciardo was ninth and Sutil closed the points ahead of Fernando Alonso, who wasn’t amused enough with some struggles at the end of the race.
Sebastian Vettel had a lap of honor in the main straight and did a great celebration that audience have enjoyed immensely. Vettel has offered the fans a spectacular “donut”, although this is not allowed, but there have been few pretty pictures and almost everyone has agreed in saying that it should be seen more often.
Red Bull has also secured the constructors’ world championship.
