India Grand Prix (2012) RESULT

Red Bull on the front row, McLaren on the second and Ferrari on the third. Can Vettel take another lights to flag win in the 2012 Indian F1 race?

It was a nice simple starting grid for the 2012 Indian Grand Prix: Sebastian Vettel on pole with team mate Mark Webber alongside; Lewis Hamilton in third with Jenson Button alongside and Fernando Alonso in fifth with Felipe Massa alongside.

What that neat starting grid translated in to was another lights to flag victory for Vettel – his fourth in a row following the first ever three in a row front row lockout for Red Bull – ahead of his main championship rival Alonso in the Ferrari in second place after Alonso got past Mark Webber – who was struggling with a recalcitrant KERS – in the closing laps.

Behind the Red Bulls, Hamilton managed a poor start, slipping from third to fifth with both Button and Alonso getting past him at the start with Alonso managing to pass Button on the fourth lap to put him up behind the Red Bulls.

With Vettel taking the win and Alonso in second place, there is still a fight for the championship in the next couple of races, although on this form Vettel – who has lead every lap of the last three races – looks invincible.

Third place Mark Webber still has a mathematical chance of a win at 70 points behind Vettel, as does Hamilton, who finished fourth in India ahead of Jenson Button in fifth. Even Kimi Raikkonen – 67 points adrift – has a theoretical chance of the title. But really, the only man with a chance of taking the 2012 World title from Sebastian Vettel is Fernando Alonso.

But after the last three performances, Vettel’s win in the 2012 Indian Grand Prix appears to make even Alonso’s 13 point target to take the drivers’ title nothing but a mathematical possibility.