Double World Champion Sebastian Vettel cruised to his fourth consecutive victory in the 2012 Indian Grand Prix. The young German led the race from start to finish. He was followed home by the Ferrari of Fernando Alonso and the Red-Bull of Mark Webber.

Alonso made a great start and overtook both of the McLaren’s on the long straight during the first lap. Later on, he managed to close down the gap to second placed Webber and overtook him in the DRS zone on the main straight. Mark Webber couldn’t do anything to defend the flying Spaniard as the KERS unit on his car had broken down early on in the race.

The McLaren duo of Hamilton and Button finished in fourth and fifth places respectively. Lewis Hamilton could have been on the podium but he just couldn’t get inside 1 second of Webber and so wasn’t able to deploy his DRS wing. This is the third race in succession where a McLaren has failed to finish on the podium.

Felipe Massa finished the race in sixth place. The Brazilian had to conserve fuel mid-way through the race. Kimi Raikkonen was seventh in his Lotus after spending much of the race behind Massa’s gearbox. The Finn was within 1 second of Massa but the top-speed wasn’t there in his Lotus, so he had to settle for seventh place behind Massa.

Nico Hulkeneberg drove another brilliant but unspectacular race to bring his Force India home in eighth place. This was German’s third consecutive top 10 finish in the last three races. Paul Di Resta could only manage a twelfth place.

Romain Grosjean and Bruno Senna completed the top 10. Grosjean started on the harder tyre and so had a very long first stint, but on the second stint he didn’t have the pace to challenge his team mate and so settled for ninth place.

Bruno Senna,Nico Rosberg and Pastor Maldanado had been battling hard through the first part of the race. Later, Maldanado dropped back with a puncture while Rosberg wasn’t able to defend tenth place from Senna.

Rosberg’s Team mate Schumacher had a disastrous race as the German was involved in a first lap collision with Jean Eric Vergne. This meant that Schumacher had to come into the pits early to change his punctured tyre. Following that, the legendary German couldn’t move up the order and finally retired on Lap 58.

This was the third race in succession where both Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher failed to score any points. Since Singapore, the Mercedes team have dropped back down the field and are now battling hard to get inside the top 10.

Sauber also had a bad race as Sergio Perez tangled with the Toro Rosso of Daniel Ricciardo which forced him to retire.  The Mexican got a puncture after the collision with Ricciardo which then damaged the rear suspension of his Sauber.

Home boy Narain Karthikeyan couldn’t produce any sort of magic and finished down in 21st place. His team mate De La Rosa retired with what looks like a brake failure.

Here are the full results from the Indian Grand Prix:

Pos No Driver Team Laps Time Grid Pts
1 1 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing-Renault 60 Winner 1 25
2 5 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 60 +9.4 secs 5 18
3 2 Mark Webber Red Bull Racing-Renault 60 +13.2 secs 2 15
4 4 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 60 +13.9 secs 3 12
5 3 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 60 +26.2 secs 4 10
6 6 Felipe Massa Ferrari 60 +44.6 secs 6 8
7 9 Kimi Räikkönen Lotus-Renault 60 +45.2 secs 7 6
8 12 Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 60 +54.9 secs 12 4
9 10 Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 60 +56.1 secs 11 2
10 19 Bruno Senna Williams-Renault 60 +74.9 secs 13 1
11 8 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 60 +81.6 secs 10
12 11 Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 60 +82.8 secs 16
13 16 Daniel Ricciardo STR-Ferrari 60 +86.0 secs 15
14 14 Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 60 +86.4 secs 17
15 17 Jean-Eric Vergne STR-Ferrari 59 +1 Lap 18
16 18 Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 59 +1 Lap 9
17 21 Vitaly Petrov Caterham-Renault 59 +1 Lap 19
18 20 Heikki Kovalainen Caterham-Renault 59 +1 Lap 20
19 25 Charles Pic Marussia-Cosworth 59 +1 Lap 24
20 24 Timo Glock Marussia-Cosworth 58 +2 Laps 21
21 23 Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 58 +2 Laps 23
22 7 Michael Schumacher Mercedes 55 +5 Laps 14
Ret 22 Pedro de la Rosa HRT-Cosworth 42 Brakes 22
Ret 15 Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 20 +40 Laps 8
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