Vettel wins Indian GP and becomes four-time world champion - MotorSportsTalk

Sebastian Vettel has won his fourth consecutive Formula One world championship in India today after taking a dominant victory at Buddh International Circuit, perfecting his strategy and laying down an impressive pace to maintain his record as the only winner of the Indian Grand Prix.

Whilst championship rival Fernando Alonso endured a luckless race, the German driver dominated to secure the title in style, becoming just the fourth driver in the history of the sport to win four world championships. The strategic ‘threat’ failed to concern Vettel with Mark Webber’s poor luck returning in the form of a gearbox problem that forced him to retire from the race, whilst the battle for second place was eventually won by Nico Rosberg who followed Vettel’s strategy.

The start saw Vettel pull away with his regular confidence and authority, but teammate Mark Webber was less fortunate has he dropped back a couple of places off the line. However, heading through turn two, the Australian driver was forced wide by Kimi Raikkonen, causing Fernando Alonso to run into the back of the Red Bull. However, Felipe Massa led Ferrari’s charge by leapfrogging both Mercedes drivers heading into turn three, and the Brazilian assumed the lead of the race when Vettel pitted on lap two. He was joined in the pits by Alonso who required a new front wing, and the stop dropped him down to P20 and forced Ferrari to change the Spaniard’s strategy, appearing to end his faint hopes of taking the title race to Abu Dhabi. The drivers tried to make their tires last as long as possible, with Vettel’s early stop being juxtaposed by race leader Massa who did not stop until lap nine. When he emerged from the pits, he was just a couple of seconds behind Vettel, putting himself in a position to challenge the German driver.

Webber’s decision to start on the medium tire meant that he took the lead of the race from Massa when the Ferrari driver stopped, and he began to set some impressive times as he looked to beat his teammate who was quickly making his way through the field. On fresh mediums though, Vettel was flying, posting fastest lap after fastest lap to cut the gap to Webber. Massa’s hopes of challenging him took a hit when he got stuck behind Esteban Gutierrez, but the Mexican driver soon dropped down the order thanks to a drive-through penalty due to a jump start. He came out ahead of Alonso and the two drivers became embroiled in a battle for thirteenth, with Alonso struggling to find a way past thanks to the straight line speed of the Sauber. However, he eventually made the move stick heading into turn five.

Due to the lack of degradation on the medium tires, the drivers who started on the white-ringed compound were able to go deep into the race and match the pace of the drivers who had already stopped. When Webber and third-placed Sergio Perez did stop, they took on the soft tire to try and make up time quickly and the Australian’s lap times immediately reflected this as he looked to bridge the gap to new leader Vettel. The German driver pitted for the final time to give Webber the lead, but the Australian came in just one lap later. As a result, Webber fell 12.5 seconds behind Vettel with both drivers having made their final stop, giving the team’s lead driver a huge advantage.

Red Bull’s perfect race came to a shattering end on lap forty though when a loss of hydraulic pressure forced Webber to pull over and retire from the race. As a result, the battle for second became a close-run thing between Raikkonen, Rosberg, Grosjean, Massa and Hamilton with the two Lotus drivers both one alternative strategies. Hamilton began to hound Massa as Rosberg pulled away from the pair in pursuit of second-placed Raikkonen. Lotus ignored Pirelli’s advice and opted to one-stop their drivers, but the Finn found himself defenceless when Rosberg made his move for second place. Despite starting down in seventeenth place, Romain Grosjean was able to one-stop and make his tires last, forcing Raikkonen to eventually yield to both him and Massa. The Finn soon fell into the clutches of Hamilton and Perez, but the Mexican driver managed to pull off an opportunistic move to pass both drivers and move up into fifth place. Lotus opted to pit their ailing driver to salvage some points, but Grosjean continued to plough ahead in third place.

At the head of the field though, there was no doubt about who the star was: Sebastian Vettel crossed the line almost thirty seconds ahead of Rosberg to win his fourth consecutive world championship and secure Red Bull the constructors’ title. Over the radio, team principal Christian Horner summed it up: “You’ve done it in style, you’ve become a four time world champion. You’ve joined the greats.” Having surpassed the likes of Jackie Stewart, Ayrton Senna and Niki Lauda for championship victories, there is no doubt that he has earned to right to be called a great, and Vettel celebrated by performing donuts on the start-finish straight in front of a baying crowd before taking to the top step of the podium for the tenth time this year.

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INDIANAPOLIS – Alex Palou had not turned a wheel wrong the entire Month of May at the Indy 500 until Rinus VeeKay turned a wheel into the Chip Ganassi Racing pole-sitter leaving pit road on Lap 94.

“There is nothing I could have done there,” Palou told NBC Sports. “It’s OK, when it is my fault or the team’s fault because everybody makes mistakes. But when there is nothing, you could have done differently there, it feels bad and feels bad for the team.”

Marcus Ericsson was a master at utilizing the “Tail of the Dragon” move that breaks the draft of the car behind him in the closing laps to win last year’s Indianapolis 500. On Sunday, however, the last of three red flags in the final 16 laps of the race had the popular driver from Sweden breathing fire after Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden beat him at his own game on the final lap to win the Indianapolis 500.

Despite the two disappointments, team owner Chip Ganassi was seen on pit road fist-bumping a member on his four-car team in this year’s Indianapolis 500 after his drivers finished second, fourth, sixth and seventh in the tightly contested race.

Those are pretty good results, but at the Indianapolis 500, there is just one winner and 32 losers.

“There is only one winner, but it was a hell of a show,” three-time Indianapolis 500 winner and Chip Ganassi Racing consultant Dario Franchitti told NBC Sports. “Alex was very fast, and he got absolutely caught out in somebody else’s wreck. There was nothing he could have done, but he and the 10 car, great recovery.

“Great recovery by all four cars because at half distance, we were not looking very good.”

After 92 laps, the first caution flew for Sting Ray Robb of Dale Coyne Racing hitting the Turn 1 wall.

During pit stops on Lap 94, Palou had left his stall when the second-place car driven by VeeKay ran into him, putting Palou’s Honda into the wall. The car sustained a damaged front wing, but the Chip Ganassi crew was able to get him back in the race on the lead lap but in 28^th position.

Palou ultimately would fight his way to a fourth-place finish in a race the popular Spaniard could have won. His displeasure with VeeKay, whom he sarcastically called “a legend” on his team radio after the incident, was evident.

“The benefit of being on pole is you can drive straight and avoid crashes, and he was able to crash us on the side on pit lane, which is pretty tough to do, but he managed it,” Palou told NBC Sports. “Hopefully next year we are not beside him. Hopefully, next year we have a little better luck.”

Palou started on the pole and led 36 laps, just three fewer than race leader Pato O’Ward of Arrow McLaren Racing.

“We started really well, was managing the fuel as we wanted, our car was pretty good,” Palou said. “Our car wasn’t great, we dropped to P4 or P5, but we still had some good stuff.

“On the pit stop, the 21 (VeeKay) managed to clip us. Nothing we could have done there. It was not my team’s fault or my fault.

“We had to drop to the end. I’m happy we made it back to P4. We needed 50 more laps to make it happen, but it could have been a lot worse after that contact.

“I learned a lot, running up front at the beginning and in mid-pack and then the back. I learned a lot.

“It feels amazing when you win it and not so good when things go wrong. We were a bit lucky with so many restarts at the end to make it back to P4 so I’m happy with that.”

Palou said the front wing had to be changed and the toe-in was a bit off, but he still had a fast car.

In fact, his Honda was the best car at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway all month. His pole-winning four lap average speed of 234.217 miles per hour around the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway was a record for this fabled race.

Palou looked good throughout the race, before he had to scratch and claw and race his way back to the top-five after he restarted 28^th.

In the Indianapolis 500, however, the best car doesn’t always win.

“It’s two years in a row that we were leading the race at the beginning and had to drop to last,” Palou said. “Maybe next year, we will start in the middle of the field and go on to win the race.

“I know he didn’t do it on purpose. It’s better to let that pass someday.”

Palou said the wild racing at the end was because the downforce package used in Sunday’s race means the drivers have to be aggressive. The front two cars can battle for the victory, but cars back in fourth or fifth place can’t help determine the outcome of the race.

That is when the “Tail of the Dragon” comes into the play.

Franchitti helped celebrate Ericsson’s win in 2022 with his “Tail of the Dragon” zigzag move – something he never had to do in any of his three Indianapolis 500 victories because they all finished under caution.

In 2023, however, IndyCar Race Control wants to make every attempt to finish the race under green, without going past the scheduled distance like NASCAR’s overtime rule.

Instead of extra laps, they stop the race with a red flag, to create a potential green-flag finish condition.

“You do what you have to do to win within the rules, and it’s within the rules, so you do it,” Franchitti said. “The race is 200 laps and there is a balance.

“Marcus did a great job on that restart and so did Josef. It was just the timing of who was where and that was it.

“If you knew it was going to go red, you would have hung back on the lap before.

“Brilliant job by the whole Ganassi organization because it wasn’t looking very good at half-distance.

“Full marks to Josef Newgarden and Team Penske.”

Franchitti is highly impressed by how well Ericsson works with CGR engineer Brad Goldberg and how close this combination came to winning the Indianapolis 500 two-years-in-a-row.

It would have been the first back-to-back Indy 500 winner since Helio Castroneves in 2001 and 2002.

“Oh, he’s a badass,” Franchitti said Ericsson. “He proved it last year. He is so calm all day. What more do you need? As a driver, he’s fast and so calm.”

Ericsson is typically in good spirits and jovial.

He was stern and direct on pit road after the race.

“I did everything right, I did an awesome restart, caught Josef off-guard and pulled away,” Ericsson said on pit lane. “It’s hard to pull away a full lap and he got me back.

“I’m mostly disappointed with the way he ended. I don’t think it was fair and safe to do that restart straight out of the pits on cold tires for everyone.

“To me, it was not a good way to end that race.

“Congrats to Josef. He didn’t do anything wrong. He is a worthy champion, but it shouldn’t have ended like that.”

Palou also didn’t understand the last restart, which was a one-start showdown.

“I know that we want to finish under green,” Palou said. “Maybe the last restart I did, I didn’t understand. It didn’t benefit the CGR team.

“I’m not very supportive of the last one, but anyway.”

Dixon called the red flags “a bit sketchy.”

“The Red Flags have become a theme to the end of the race, but sometimes they can catch you out,” Dixon said. “I know Marcus is frustrated with it.

“All we ask for is consistency. I think they will do better next time.

“It’s a tough race. People will do anything they can to win it and with how these reds fall, you have to be in the right place at the right time. The problem is when they throw a Red or don’t throw a Red dictates how the race will end.

“It’s a bloody hard race to win. Congrats to Josef Newgarden and to Team Penske.”

Follow Bruce Martin on Twitter at @BruceMartin_500