Win number 11 for Vettel

Sebastian Vettel won the inaugural Indian Grand Prix ahead of McLaren's Jenson Button and Ferrari's Fernando Alonso.

World champion does it in style as Hamilton and Massa collide again

Sebastian Vettel won the inaugural Indian Grand Prix in signature style on Sunday from Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso. The world champion, who claimed his 13th pole position of the season on Saturday, made it 11 victories in 2011 after once again appearing completely in control. He took the chequered flag at the Buddh International Circuit over eight seconds ahead of Button, who in turn bolstered his attempt to claim second place in the drivers' championship. Alonso took the final podium place ahead of Webber, with Red Bull's hopes that the Australian might finish second behind team-mate Vettel in the overall standings taking another hit. Michael Schumacher finished fifth ahead of Mercedes GP team-mate Nico Rosberg, while Lewis Hamilton came home seventh having collided with Felipe Massa for the third time in four races. Toro Rosso's Jaime Alguersuari finished eighth ahead of Force India's Adrian Sutil while Sauber's Sergio Perez claimed the final world championship point in 10th. A feature of the weekend has been the dust thrown up as drivers get to grips with the new 5.125km track and there was plenty to be seen on the opening lap, with Rubens Barrichello spinning at the first corner after a nudge from Williams team-mate Pastor Maldonado. Kamui Kobayashi was forced to retire his Sauber after also colliding with the Virgin of Timo Glock at turn one while, further up the road, Jarno Trulli's Lotus was hit by an HRT.

Clean start

The action at the front of the field was less fraught, with Vettel making a clean start while Button, who started fourth on the grid, passed Alonso at the first corner before taking second place from Webber on the long straight down to turn four. Just as soon as he was able to, Webber tried to use his DRS to claw the place back with the pair side-by-side through turn four on lap five. However, the McLaren used its superior straightline speed to keep the place, with Button then managing to pull clear of Webber and pegging Vettel's lead to around four seconds. Behind Webber, Alonso led Massa, Hamilton, Rosberg and Schumacher - the top eight all holding station prior to the first round of stops which started on lap 17. The order stayed the same as the frontrunners pitted for soft compound option tyres, although Button managed to take about a second out of Vettel's lead. F1's feud of the season reignited on lap 24 after Massa ran wide out of turn three. Hamilton closed up as a result, but on the run to turn five he dived for the inside line and made contact with the Ferrari. Massa spun but sheld on to fifth place ahead of the two Mercedes while Hamilton dropped to ninth after pitting for a new front wing on the following lap. The Brazilian then fell down to seventh after stewards decided that, on this occasion, he was at fault by turning in on the McLaren. Massa served a drive-through penalty on lap 31 and was back in 11th after stopping for tyres the following lap. However, Massa's race was run by lap 34 when, in a repeat on the incident which caused him to crash in qualifying, he hit one of the track's raised orange kerbs and broke his car's left-front suspension. Vettel, meanwhile, had increased his lead from Button to over 6s by lap 38, when Webber became the first of the frontrunners to stop for a second time. The Australian's car was fitted with Pirelli's hard compound tyre, which it was thought would prove significantly slower than the softer rubber. Webber's times did not in fact drop off to any great extent, but he still lost third place to Alonso after Ferrari responded by bringing the Spaniard in on the following lap. McLaren pitted Hamilton, now in seventh and suffering vibrations on his car after the earlier collision, and Button almost in tandem on laps 46/47, while Red Bull reacted to the latter's stop by bringing Vettel in for his final stop soon after. The German rejoined with a 3s advantage, which he again increased during the closing laps. Meanwhile, Schumacher made his final stop on lap 51 out of 60 and was able to take fifth place from team-mate Rosberg, who had already pitted.

Tribute

After a dark couple of weeks for motorsport with the deaths of Dan Wheldon and Marco Simoncelli, the drivers paid their own tribute shortly before the race. Vettel also spoke of his sadness after taking the chequered flag. He said: "I've a little bit of mixed emotions. "I'm very proud to be the first winner of the Indian Grand Prix, but then on the other hand we recently lost two of our mates. "I didn't know Dan Wheldon, but he was big in motorsport, and then this year I got to know Marco Simoncelli, so our thoughts are with them at the moment." Button and Alonso echoed the sentiments, with the former stating: "It's been a tough weekend for everyone after the two fatalities. "I knew Dan very well, so this is a very sad day for motorsport. "We should dedicate this first Indian race to Dan and Marco, a super-talented guy, the most amazing guy to ride on a bike." Alonso added: "As Jenson and Sebastian said, a tough weekend, and out thoughts are with Dan and Marco." Of his latest victory, Vettel added: "It was a very good race. I enjoyed the time in the lead, I had a little bit of a fight with Jenson who strangely kept closing in at the pit stops. "All in all it was a very smooth race, the car was well balanced." Further down the field, Sutil moved up to ninth after Toro Rosso's Sebastien Buemi retired while the point Perez earned came after he, like Renault's Vitaly Petrov and Force India's Paul di Resta, elected to pit early for softer tyres. The Mexican stopped as early as lap two, with Petrov and di Resta following suit but they could only finish 11th and 13th respectively. They sandwiched Petrov's team-mate Bruno Senna, who climbed to ninth place before a late pit stop. Barrichello finished 15th and Trulli 19th while Maldonado suffered a mechanical failure early on. Meanwhile, Narain Karthikeyan, the only Indian driver to take part in his home race, finished three laps down in 17th place for HRT.Result
1 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull 1hr 30mins 35.002secs, 2 Jenson Button (Gbr) McLaren 1:30:43.435, 3 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari 1:30:59.303, 4 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull 1:31:00.531, 5 Michael Schumacher (Ger) Mercedes GP 1:31:40.423, 6 Nico Rosberg (Ger) Mercedes GP 1:31:41.853, 7 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) McLaren 1:31:59.185, 8 Jaime Alguersuari (Spa) Scuderia Toro Rosso at 1 Lap, 9 Adrian Sutil (Ger) Force India at 1 Lap, 10 Sergio Perez (Mex) Sauber-Ferrari at 1 Lap, 11 Vitaly Petrov (Rus) Renault at 1 Lap, 12 Bruno Senna (Bra) Renault at 1 Lap, 13 Paul di Resta (Gbr) Force India at 1 Lap, 14 Heikki Kovalainen (Fin) Lotus F1 at 2 Laps, 15 Rubens Barrichello (Bra) Williams at 2 Laps, 16 Jerome d'Ambrosio (Bel) Virgin Racing at 3 Laps, 17 Narain Karthikeyan (Ind) HRT-F1 at 3 Laps, 18 Daniel Ricciardo (Aus) HRT-F1 at 3 Laps, 19 Jarno Trulli (Ita) Lotus F1 at 5 Laps Not Classified: 20 Felipe Massa (Bra) Ferrari 32 Laps completed, 21 Sebastien Buemi (Swi) Scuderia Toro Rosso 24 Laps completed, 22 Pastor Maldonado (Ven) Williams 12 Laps completed, 23 Timo Glock (Ger) Virgin Racing 2 Laps completed, 24 Kamui Kobayashi (Jpn) Sauber-Ferrari 0 Laps completed
Drivers' championship:
1 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull 374pts, 2 Jenson Button (Gbr) McLaren 240, 3 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari 227, 4 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull 221, 5 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) McLaren 202, 6 Felipe Massa (Bra) Ferrari 98, 7 Nico Rosberg (Ger) Mercedes GP 75, 8 Michael Schumacher (Ger) Mercedes GP 70, 9 Vitaly Petrov (Rus) Renault 36, 10 Nick Heidfeld (Ger) Renault 34, 11 Adrian Sutil (Ger) Force India 30, 12 Kamui Kobayashi (Jpn) Sauber-Ferrari 27, 13 Jaime Alguersuari (Spa) Scuderia Toro Rosso 26, 14 Paul di Resta (Gbr) Force India 21, 15 Sebastien Buemi (Swi) Scuderia Toro Rosso 15, 16 Sergio Perez (Mex) Sauber-Ferrari 14, 17 Rubens Barrichello (Bra) Williams 4, 18 Bruno Senna (Bra) Renault 2, 19 Pastor Maldonado (Ven) Williams 1, 20 Pedro de la Rosa (Spa) Sauber-Ferrari 0, 21 Jarno Trulli (Ita) Lotus F1 0, 22 Heikki Kovalainen (Fin) Lotus F1 0, 23 Vitantonio Liuzzi (Ita) HRT-F1 0, 24 Jerome d'Ambrosio (Bel) Virgin Racing 0, 25 Timo Glock (Ger) Virgin Racing 0, 26 Daniel Ricciardo (Aus) HRT-F1 0, 27 Narain Karthikeyan (Ind) HRT-F1 0, 28 Karun Chandhok (Ind) Lotus F1 0
Constructors' championship
1 Red Bull 595pts, 2 McLaren 442, 3 Ferrari 325, 4 Mercedes GP 145, 5 Renault 72, 6 Force India 51, 7 Sauber-Ferrari 41, 8 Scuderia Toro Rosso 41, 9 Williams 5, 10 Lotus F1 0, 11 HRT-F1 0, 12 Virgin Racing 0