Vettel Leads Every Lap of Indian Grand Prix

Sebastian Vettel has led every lap ever at the Indian Grand Prix. Not just this year, but last year too. Vettel started from pole and never gave up the lead for the entire 60 laps. Behind him there was not particularly a lot of action either. Fernando Alonso fought through three-quarters of the race to pass Mark Webber for second place. Webber, despite a broken KERS system, finished third. With Webber's KERS problems, McLaren told Hamilton to push to pass him in the last 10 laps, but Hamilton was not able to make up the gap and finished fourth. 

The start of the race had immediate action. Fernando Alonso and the two McLarens went three wide into the second corner. Alonso slowed, and Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton nearly collided. On the next corner Alonso was able to get around Hamilton. Amid all of the action at the front of the pack Jean-Eric Vergne broke his front wing by hitting Michael Schumacher's right rear tire, which caused a puncture. 

A few laps later, Alonso was able to get around Hamilton to take third position; he was still nearly five seconds behind Mark Webber in second and about eight seconds behind Sebastian Vettel in first by lap 16. Alonso reeled Webber in through the rest of the race. Alonso was about 1.7 seconds behind the Australian with 26 laps into the race. Following their pit stops, Alonso closed up to less than a second Webber. With 13 laps to go the big battle on track was still Alonso and Webber. Webber's car stopped charging its KERS system, which gave Ferrari a slight advantage. Alonso made the pass using the DRS on lap 48 to bring him into second. 

Many drivers are probably wishing that points were scored based on flat tires. In addition to Schumacher, Sergio Perez made contact with Daniel Ricciardo on lap 20, which resulted in a right rear puncture for Perez and a bent wing for Ricciardo. Perez damaged the car on the way to the pits and pulled the car into the garage. Later, Kamui Kobayashi hit Pastor Maldonado to puncture his right rear tire. When Maldonado re-entered the track, he was just in front of Vettel who nearly collided into the back of Maldonado. 

The other major off of the race came from Pedro de la Rosa who spun and hit the wall backwards at the end of the long straight on lap 45. 

It was Vettel's race for the entire time. By lap 25, Vettel has pulled out a 10 second lead over Mark Webber, and the gap stayed roughly that long for the duration. 

Finally, in the last five laps there was some excitement. The legality plank began scraping the ground. It was unclear whether there was a problem with Vettel's suspension. If it is too thin, it could cause Vettel's win to be vacated. After the race, the team determined that it was a skid block and not the legality plank. 

With just two laps to go, Michael Schumacher pulled the Mercedes into the garage after having an abysmal race. 

Felipe Massa ran out of fuel after the checkered flag. 

Sebastian Vettel has come back in the last portion of the season like a bat out of hell. He has won the last three races in a row after scoring just one other win this season.

Vettel's championship lead has grown to 13 points over Alonso. The championship is still undecided with three races left. The next round will be the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.