Vettel easily to the best starting position

 

Sebastian Vettel easily won a new top starting position in qualifying for the Indian Grand Prix. The Red Bull racer took a lap with a softer mix in the final part of the qualifiers with a time of 1: 24.119, which was three-quarters of a second faster than his closest followers, Nic Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton.

Due to the large differences in the performance of hard and soft tires, a lot of attention was paid to tactics in the last part. Vettel put on soft tires in the last attempt, and his teammate harder, so it's no surprise that both Mercedes racers were pushed out of second place. The Australian is not disappointed, however, as he will start the race on tires that are closer to his heart.

In the last attempt, Felipe Massa took the best lap and broke through to fifth place, thus again beating his teammate Fernando Alonso in sixth place. Kimi Raikkonen and Nico Hulkenberg ranked behind Ferrari racers, while McLaren Sergio Perez and Jenson Buttn finished last in the top ten.

Romain Grosjean, who predicted an attack on the Red Bull team before the race, surprisingly dropped out in the first half. Like Vettel, he took a risk with a harder version of the tires, but due to a few mistakes in the fast laps, he ran out of range until the second part of the qualifiers. The Frenchman shook his head when returning to the pits, but that didn’t help him. He will start the race from the ninth row alongside Williams racer Pastor Maldonado.

All attention is now moving to a race where Sebastian Vettel can win his fourth consecutive championship title. All he needs to do is place in the top five, while his team, with a 129-point advantage over Ferrari, will have to wait at least until the race in Abu Dhabi for the crown of constructor champion.

 

Indian GP results, qualifications:

Q3	Racer	The team	Hour	Circles
1.	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull	01:24.119	12
2.	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	01:24.871	21
3.	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	01:24.941	20
4.	Mark Webber	Red Bull	01:25.047	17
5.	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	01:25.201	19
6.	Kimi Räikkönen	Lotus	01:25.248	18
7.	Nico Hulkenberg	Clean	01:25.334	19
8.	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	01:25.826	15
9.	Sergio Perez	McLaren	01:26.153	21
10.	Jenson Button	McLaren	01:26.847	23
Q2
11.	Daniel Ricciardo	Toro Rosso	01:25.519	14
12.	Paul di Resta	Force India	01:25.711	15
13.	Adrian Sutil	Force India	01:25.740	16
14.	Jean-Eric Vergne	Toro Rosso	01:25.798	14
15.	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	01:26.134	15
16.	Esteban Gutierrez	Clean	01:26.336	11
Q1
17.	Romain Grosjean	Lotus	01:26.577	7
18.	Pastor Maldonado	Williams	01:26.842	9
19.	Jules Bianchi	Marussia	01:26.970	8
20.	Giedo van der Garde	Caterham	01:27.105	6
21.	Charles Pic	Caterham	01:27.487	7
22.	Max Chilton	Marussia	01:28.138	8