by www.redbullracing.com, Oct 30, 2011
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The first Indian Grand Prix was another win for our team, another win for Sebastian Vettel and another set of records broken.
Seb led from lights to flag, breaking Nigel Mansell's record of laps in a season led by one driver and demonstrating once again that there's no let up from either of our drivers this year.
Afterwards Sebastian acknowleged that this is very much a team result: “On the circuit it was crucial to manage the tyres and make sure we had enough left at the end, but it was a very smooth race. The car was very well balanced and it was a fantastic race today. Thanks to the whole team and to Renault, who have done an exceptional job so far this season. But I have mixed emotions today. I’m very proud to be the first winner of the Indian Grand Prix.”
While Vettel, as was the case in Korea, left the field for dust, behind him Mark once again found himself competing with Ferraris and McLarens for a podium step. On this occasion it wasn't to be after Jenson overtook him on the first corner and Alonso's latter-stage persistence paid off as the Spaniard took the final trophy of the day.
Mark said: “We lost the podium in the middle of the race really. It’s pretty much the general story of this year; I just don't have the pace at the end of the stints, so I run out of tyres and then lose strategy, it means I have to pit earlier and it makes life harder. In the end, I wasn’t quick enough. I had a reasonable pace at the start of the stints, but as they go on, we go back into the clutches of the other guys.”
For Christian, while missing one driver on the podium, there were positives to be taken for the team from this afternoon's race. He said: “A brilliant result for the team to win the first-ever Indian Grand Prix. Sebastian was inch-perfect today and drove an immaculate race with great strategy, good pit work and everything came right for him. For Mark, it was more of a frustrating afternoon. Nevertheless, first and fourth still retains our 100% reliability record. After claiming the team season pole position record yesterday, Sebastian has claimed a second record this weekend, by leading the most laps during the course of a grand prix season.”
Elsewhere in the pack, Massa and Hamilton were once again far too close for comfort and their Lap 24 collision resulted in a drive-through penalty for the Brazilian and another less than cordial chapter written in the pair’s ongoing 2011 saga.
A good day yesterday for Scuderia Toro Rosso was (partly) converted into a great result. Jaime Alguersuari's eighth-place finish means the team is now level on points with Sauber to be seventh equal in the Constructors. Had Buemi not made an early exit on Lap 26 they'd have leap-frogged the Swiss team.
The grand prix was preceded by a minute's silence and at the post-race interview mention was also made of Dan Wheldon and Marco Simoncelli. A sad, but fitting tribute from one motorsport to two talented racers.
But all-in-all it was a great debut for Formula One on the subcontinent. The fans were enthusiastic, the circuit provided some great track action and it's a beautiful city and country to come racing. Nice one Vijay.
In fact the only low point all weekend was Metallica cancelling.
Credit: Red Bull Racing Formula one Team (www.redbullracing.com)
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