Sebastian Vettel starts Indian campaign on top - leads FP1 at Indian GP

Sebastian Vettel started his 2013 Indian Grand Prix campaign with a flyer by topping the FP1 charts from teammate Mark Webber.

The German driver who has led every single lap of the previous two editions of the race posted a lap time of 1:26.683 to march ahead of his Australian teammate by two tenths of a second.

The session got off to a slow start with haze covering much of the track. Sergio Perez was the first driver to set a lap time, half an hour into the session. However, as the session progressed we saw drivers taking full use of improved weather and track conditions.

Nico Rosberg was three hundredths of a second slower than Webber to show that Mercedes might just have a chance to fight for the podium after a poor run of races. Romain Grosjean was impressive as always, this time the Frenchman set a time of 1:26.990, three tenths slower than Vettel’s benchmark.

Lewis Hamilton couldn’t close match his Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg on his way to fifth in the session. Button and Perez who set the early pace in New Delhi were sixth and seventh fastest respectively, separated by less than a tenth of a second.

Felipe Massa was the fastest of the two Ferraris on his way to eight in the session. His teammate Fernando Alonso encountered a gearbox issue and had to crawl back to the pits. The team failed to bring his car back by the end of the session.

Nico Hulkenberg was ninth in the session ahead of Willams’ Valtteri Bottas who had an impressive first outing in India. The Finn set a lap time of 1:27.800, 1.1 seconds slower than the fastest lap of the session.

Jean Eric Vergne(11th fastest) edged his teammate on a single lap this time, lapping in his teammate by three tenths of a second.

Pastor Maldonado was 14th fastest for Williams ahead of Force India’s Adrian Sutil, Sauber’s Esteban Gutierrez, and Lotus’ Kimi Raikkonen. James Calado, who replaced Di Resta for the session was 18th fastest. The British driver complained about understeer on his car before spins at the penultimate corner.