Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel was crowned Formula 1 World Champion for the fourth consecutive year on Sunday, after winning the Indian Grand Prix. The German has now the same number of titles as Alain Prost and has only two other great drivers to beat: Juan Manuel Fangio (5 titles) and Michael Schumacher (7 titles). The 26-year-old driver is the youngest double, triple and now quadruple world champion.
Although he started the race on pole-position, Vettel quickly dropped to 17th place following an early pitstop to change tires. The German then started to work his way up and by lap 21, he was second, behind Red Bull teammate Mark Webber. On lap 33, Vettel raced in front again and kept the position until the end of the race.
Naturally, after he crossed the finish line he wanted to celebrate so he made some donuts on the front straight during the celebration lap. One would think he would get away with that, even in a politically-correct sport like Formula 1; well, he didn’t.
FIA regulations stipulate that the winning car must go straight to “parc ferme” after the race, and Vettel broke that rule as he stopped the car on the grid after doing the donuts, got out of it and threw his gloves into the grandstand.
The idea behind the rule is to prevent interference with the car – which obviously didn’t happen. Nevertheless, FIA officials quickly reached Vettel’s car to “neutralise” it, and Vettel with his team manager were called up by the stewards. They decided to reprimand Vettel and fine the team €25,000 ($34,470).
You can watch Vettel’s hoon-style celebration in the video below.
By Dan Mihalascu
PHOTO GALLERY
VIDEO