Indian GP: Vettel inches closer to the title with pole in India

Sebastian Vettel continued his 100% pole position record in India by posting a lap time of 1:24.119. Nico Rosberg was second fastest, seventh tenths slower than Vettel’s benchmark. Lewis Hamilton, the only other driver apart from Sebastian Vettel to start the race from pole position since the summer break was third fastest.The qualifying session was particularly interesting as multiple drivers decided to complete Q3 on medium tyres instead of the fragile soft tyre. That will make up for some interesting strategies tomorrow in the race.

One of them was Vettel’s teammate Mark Webber, who did two runs on medium tyres and ended up fourth fastest. Behind his Massa and Raikkonen locked in at 1:25.201 and 1:25.248 to qualify in fifth and sixth. Both lap times were set on the option tyres.Fernando Alonso had to try something different and he duly did so by coming out on mediums. However, that left him down in eight ahead of the McLaren duo of Sergio Perez and Jenson Button.

Daniel Ricciardo was the first one to miss out of Q2. Force India’s Paul di Resta and Adrian sutil weren’t lucky either on their home ground – they were 12th and 13th fastest. But the improvements from Japan seems to have continued in India.

Grosjean made a gamble on coming out on medium tyres in Q1 instead of the softs and that meant he was relegated in the first part of qualifying session. The gamble had worked at the previous couple of races but this time he wasn’t so lucky with Vettel, the only other person on medium tyres.

Jules Bianchi was only one tenth slower than Maldonado in 19th but more importantly he managed to beat both Caterhams. His teammate Max Chilton, who impressed us in qualifying a fortnight ago in Japan was only 22nd fastest in India.

by Rachit Thukral