Vettel seals fourth F1 title in India
Sebastian Vettel cruised to victory the weekend at the Indian Grand Prix, sealing his fourth successive world championship in the process.
The German only had to finish in fifth in order to clinch an unassailable lead at the top of the driver's leaderboard, but that was certainly not how he wanted to finish things.
After setting the pace in qualifying and earning pole position, Vettel was primed to break the record for the youngest driver to win successive titles four times in a row.
The only man who could mathematically stop him, Fernando Alonso, found himself eighth on the grid and would soon fall even further behind when the race began, after colliding with Mark Webber in the first corner.
Needing a new front wing and with his race strategy in tatters, it was all down to Vettel to bring the title home. The Spaniard would eventually finish in a disappointing 11th place.
The 26-year-old held his position after the lights went out, but headed to the pits for an early tyre change. On his exit, Vettel had to charge his way? through the pack before eventually reclaiming the lead a third of the way through after team-mate Mark Webber opted for different rubbers.
Unfortunately, Webber couldn't help his team commemorate the occasion with a double podium finish, as the Australian was forced to retire shortly after following alternator failure.
After that, Vettel had a straight shot to the finish line, but needed to keep his wits about him to maintain his KERS for the remainder of the race.
In the end though it all seemed rather easy for the German, as he finished almost 30 seconds ahead of closest challenger Nico Rosberg.
After passing the chequered flag, Vettel performed doughnuts in his magnificent Red Bull machine, celebrating his tenth top-podium place of the season and, more importantly, his milestone world title victory.
With Vettel on such blistering form, can he possibly make it five-in-a-row in 2014?
Posted by Sebastian Turkenburg