Nu is het dan zover: Vettel en Red Bull zijn kampioen. Al het hele weekend maakte Vettel duidelijk, dat niemand hem meer van de titel af kon houden. Snel in de trainingen en van pole van start.
Alonso, de enige die Vettel nog van het kampioenschap af had kunnen houden startte vanaf de 8e plaats en eindigde op de 11e plaats net buiten de punten.
Na de start bleef Vettel als vanouds aan de leiding. Lang duurde dat niet, want al in de tweede ronde stopte hij al voor nieuwe banden. Nadat hij weer terugkwam op de baan begon zijn opmars terug naar de leiding. Omdat ook de andere coureurs vroeg naar binnen gingen werd zijn opmars nog versneld.
Kort na zijn tweede stop pakte Vettel de leiding over toen ook Webber naar binnen ging voor nieuwe banden. Het leek daarop een gemakkelijke 1-2 finish te worden voor Red Bull. Totdat Webber problemen kreeg met zijn dynamo en hij zijn auto langs de kant moest parkeren.
Räikkönen klom daarop naar de tweede plaats. In de laatste fase van de race had Räikkönen zijn banden opgebrand en begon hij terrein te verliezen. Met behulp van het DRS werd hij een gemakkelijke prooi voor Rosberg, wiens tweede plaats niet meer in gevaar zou komen.
Grosjean reed een geweldige race. Gestart van slechts de 17e plaats wist hij met slechts 1 pitstop en zuinig om gaan met de banden op te klimmen naar de derde plaats. Cadeau kreeg hij die positie niet van Räikkönen. Tot ergernis van het team.
Räikkönen zou nog verder terugvallen. Meteen nadat hij Grosjean voorbij moet laten stak Massa hem voorbij. En al snel gevolgd door Perez en Hamilton. Daarop besloot hij om de pits op te zoeken voor nieuwe banden. Dit zorgde niet meer voor verdere terugval in de stand, zodat hij als 7e finishte.
Voor Van der Garde was de race, net als de vorige, in de eerste ronde alweer afgelopen. En net als in de vorige race door een aanrijding met Chilton.
Lotus F1
Romain Grosjean drove a perfect race from seventeenth on the Indian Grand Prix grid to third at the chequered flag – despite enduring problems with his engine's pneumatic system – whilst Kimi Räikkönen found the limits of his tyre's performance as the team attempted a one-stop strategy.
Romain managed his car well to take the final podium slot while the team and engine partners Renault devised a strategy to limit the air consumption of his engine's pneumatic system. Kimi ran out of tyre performance near the end of his race, resulting in a late pit stop and the consolation of the race's fastest lap.
Kimi retains third place in the Drivers' Championship on 183 points; 14 points ahead of Lewis Hamilton and with a reduced gab to Fernando Alonso on 207 ahead. Romain rises to seventh position on an equal points tally – 102 – to Felipe Massa in eighth. The team remains fourth in the Constructors' Championship on 285 points from Ferrari's 309.
Over the previous four races – Singapore, Korea, Japan and India – Lotus F1 Team has scored the second highest points tally of any outfit on the grid with a haul of 94, behind only Red Bull Racing on 118. In that same period, only Sebastian Vettel has outscored Kimi and Romain; 100 points for the German compared to the Finn's 49 and Frenchman's 45.
Kimi Räikkönen, P7
"We ran maybe the first twenty laps with no brakes as they had overheated massively, so every time I got close to somebody I lost braking. At the end of the race I ran out of tyre performance too so it's been a pretty disappointing day. I knew the tyres would drop off quite quickly, but there wasn't much to lose between trying to get to the end and making an extra pit stop in terms of time lost. In the end it didn't work."
Romain Grosjean, P3
"If you had told me yesterday that I'd be on the podium here I would have said you were crazy! Straight from the beginning of the race I felt very comfortable on the option tyres and we looked in pretty good shape, then we fitted the mediums and the car was really quick. I lost quite a lot of time behind [Esteban] Gutierrez which maybe cost us the fight for second, but we managed to come back from that well. When I saw that I was fourth in front of [Felipe] Massa with 27 laps to go I knew it was going to be close with him as we had to take care of the tyres, plus we had an engine issue at the end of the race which made things quite tricky. In the final laps Kimi was really struggling with his tyres so I managed to pass him and luckily had enough pace to keep Felipe behind. Before the race our best prediction was fourth if we had a strong start and a perfect race, so it was an amazing result and a great performance from the team."
Eric Boullier, Team Principal
"It's been an eventful weekend. In the end it was a brilliant job from the team and a great performance from Romain, who had a very strong drive and managed to conserve his tyre performance right to the end. He was fast today despite having to nurse his engine, and being on the podium is a good reward for the whole team. Obviously it's disappointing that the tyres couldn't last long enough for Kimi as being third and fourth would have been an amazing result for the team and very useful in the Constructors' Championship, but we'll keep fighting hard until the end of the season and we'll give some headaches to the other teams. We give our congratulations to Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull for their Championship victory today, and also our promise that we're working hard to give them a tougher battle in 2014."
De volgende race is op 3 november in Abu Dhabi.
