Sebastian Vettel won the first Indian Grand Prix with ease. Jenson Button kept Vettel thinking with a second place finish, ahead of Alonso in third.
The race started with action throughout the grid. Webber was under pressure from Alonso and Button. Fernando slightly locked up, losing his place to Jenson. Button, with a good toe from Webber, took second place down the long straight. Hamilton did have a good start, but around the first corners, he was squeezed out down to sixth. Behind, several cars collided spitting out debris around the first two corners. Timo Glock, Jarno Trulli and Rubens Barrichello (who lost his front wing) all pit. While, Kobayashi has to retire from the race. The biggest gainer was Schumacher, who jumped into 8th place, taking both Toro Rosso's who fell out of the points.
At the very front, Vettel was pulling out a huge lead. On lap 5, he had a 4.2 second gap o the fight for second between Button and Webber. They lead Alonso, Massa, Hamilton, Rosberg, Schumacher, Sutil and Senna. In 11th was Alguersuari, who was putting Bruno under pressure for that last points paying position. After encouragement from his team, the young Spaniard managed to take 10th place off the Brazilian. Things went from bad-to-worse for Senna when Sebastien Buemi took him immediately.
In the battle for second, Button was starting to create a gap. He was setting consistant fastest laps, and was starting to close the gap to Vettel. With a gap of about 5 seconds, Vettel took the fastest lap, ensuring that the gap never got smaller. On the same lap, Webber, Alonso and Hamilton all pitted for new tyres. The order stayed as it was, but when Massa exited the pits a lap latter, he was very close to colliding with his Ferrari teammate. The pace that was being set by these four drivers resulted in Vettel and Button pitting. The fastest on the new tyres was Hamilton. He was setting similar pace to Vettel, and was closing in on Massa in fifth.
On lap 24, little separated the two. By turn 5, Lewis believed he had seen a gap on the inside. Into the braking zone, Massa was just in the lead; however, upon taking the corner, the two collided. Both spun, but they both managed to keep their cars on the track. The incident went to the stewards, and they soon decided that Felipe Massa was at at fault, and gave him a drive-through penalty. After the dust had settled, and Lewis had a new front wing, Massa was seventh, just ahead of Hamilton. However, a lap latter, Massa pitted for new tyres. Then, Felipe's day got even worse. Similar to his accident in qualifying, he hits the kerb at turn 8 (instead of turn 7), braking his front-left suspension, and ending his day.
Back at the front, and Vettel was easily in the lead. Button was ensuring that Sebastian was not running away with the race, as the Brit maintained about a 5 second gap. Behind, there was now a battle for third. Webber and Alonso were closing, and Fernando seemed to be the faster of the two. Webber pitted first, and when Fernando pitted, the Spaniard managed to do the under-cut and take third place of the Australian. Now all he had to do was keep that position.
Alonso managed to fend of Webber for the remaining laps, and Vettel did a similar job to Button. Sebastian Vettel eased to victory at the inaugural Indian Grand Prix. Button kept him on his toes, but the German was never in any real danger. Alonso took third ahead of Webber. They lead Schmacher, Rosberg, Hamilton. While Alguersuari, Sutil and Perez rounded out the top 10.
Race Results
Pos - Driver - Team - Rank
1 - Sebastian Vettel - Red Bull - 1
2 - Jenson Button - McLaren - 4
3 - Fernando Alonso - Ferrari - 5
4 - Mark Webber - Red Bull - 2
5 - Michael Schumacher - Mercedes - 10
6 - Nico Rosberg - Mercedes - 7
7 - Lewis Hamilton -McLaren - 3
8 - Jaime Alguersuari - Toro Rosso - 15
9 - Adrian Sutil - Force India - 9
10 - Sergio Perez - Sauber -24
11 - Vitaly Petrov - Renault - 12
12 - Bruno Senna - Renault - 26
13 - Paul Di Resta - Force India - 19
14 - Heikki Kovalainen - Lotus - 18
15 - Rubens Barrichello - Williams - 8
16 - Jerome D'Ambrosio - Virgin - 29
17 - Narain Karthikeyan - HRT - 36
18 - Daniel Ricciardo - HRT - 36
19 - Jarno Trulli - Lotus - 17
R - Felipe Massa - Ferrari - 6
R - Sebastien Buemi - Toro Rosso - 13
R - Pastor Maldonado - Williams - 25
R - Timo Glock - Virgin - 20
R - Kamui Kobayashi - Sauber - 14
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