Sebastian Vettel yesterday set the record for most consecutive race wins in a season with eight victories on the trot, surpassing the benchmark of seven set by Alberto Ascari and Vettel’s fellow German Michael Schumacher. After taking pole position in qualifying, Vettel got into the lead early in the race and stayed there, surviving an early safety car appearance on the first lap after Adrian Sutil crashed out.
It was one of Vettel’s easier victories as the four-time world champion built a formidable gap to Romain Grosjean, who finished in second ahead of Vettel’s Red Bull team mate Mark Webber. The three podium-placed drivers raced mostly between themselves and drew far ahead of the rest of the pack apart from a brief spell at the beginning of the race when Webber got caught behind the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton. Hamilton finished fourth ahead of Fernando Alonso, but that fifth place finish was enough for the Spaniard to secure second place in the World Drivers’ Championship with a race to go.
Scotland’s Paul di Resta looked to be in a good position for most of the race, but failed to score any points after a late pitstop. The Force India driver qualified in 12th and moved into the points positions early in the race, but the gamble of a one-stop strategy didn’t pay off. Speaking after the race, di Resta said:- “”I made a good start and was in reasonable shape for the first stint. But it soon became clear that we were struggling for pace and not really in the zone with the tyres. We were pushing to do a one-stop race, but the tyre wear was a bit higher than expected and I ran out of tyre performance with nine laps to go.
“It was hard to defend my position so I had to make a second pit stop. It’s a shame because we were quite optimistic before the race and we thought the warmer weather might play into our hands. So it’s a bit disappointing, but we will pick ourselves up and look to end the season with a better result in Brazil next weekend.”
Full Race Results
1 Sebastian Vettel
2 Romain Grosjean
3 Mark Webber
4 Lewis Hamilton
5 Fernando Alonso
6 Nico Hulkenberg
7 Sergio Perez
8 Valtteri Bottas
9 Nico Rosberg
10 Jenson Button
11 Daniel Ricciardo
12 Jean-Eric Vergne
13 Felipe Massa
14 Esteban Gutierrez
15 Heikki Kovalainen
16 Paul Di Resta
17 Pastor Maldonado
18 Jules Bianchi
19 Giedo van der Garde
20 Charles Pic
21 Max Chilton
DNF Adrian Sutil
