Niki Lauda may have been wrong in our opinion about Michael Schumacher’s return to Formula1, but as far as the latest world champion is concerned, his predictions appear to be spot on.
The Austrian had said that, given the right circumstances, Sebastian Vettel has the potential to match and even surpass Schumacher who so far, has broken nearly all records in F1.
Well, last year he became Formula One’s youngest ever world champion and last Sunday, with his win in the inaugural Indian Grand Prix, Vettel matched Schumacher’s record of 13 wins in a single season.
Therefore, if he wins at least one of the two remaining races of the season, in Abu Dhabi or Brazil, he will make it in the record books relegating Schumi to second place.
The first Grand Prix ever held at India wasn’t all about Vettel, though. Fernando Alonso made the right prediction after Saturday’s qualifying when he said that a pole position in the starting grid wasn’t important: in the firs turn, his main rival for second place in the championship, Jenson Button, passed him as the Spaniard made a mistake and ran wide.
The start of the race was also eventful for those at the back end of the grid: the cars of Rubens Barrichello, Jarno Trulli and Kamui Kobayashi came into contact, with the latter retiring and the other two making unexpected pit stops to repair their damaged cars. Timo Glock, who was also involved in the accident, retired his Virgin soon after and Pastor Maldonado did the same with his Williams after losing it at turn 4.
Vettel, as usual, started to build an early lead from Button and Mark Webber who followed in second and third place. In the middle of the field, there was intense competition, while Felipe Massa and Lewis Hamilton made headlines as they collided for the umpteenth time this season.
The McLaren driver tried to overtake the Brazilian on lap 24, Massa turned into him and the two cars came into contact with the Ferrari spinning out the track. Massa received a drive-through penalty for causing the accident only to retire a few laps later when he broke his suspension while negotiating a kerb too aggressively.
With Vettel and Button having secured the first two places, the interest was focused on the battle for third place. Ferrari, which so far did not have the best of weekends, at least managed to beat the second Red Bull, with Alonso fending off Mark Webber after the last round of pit stops.