Vettel Unchallenged on way to Fourth Title
Vettel claimed his tenth win of the season to seal his fourth consecutive world drivers title at the Buddh International Circuit, quickly despatching the soft tyres to cruise through the pack and take the win ahead of Nico Rosberg after Mark Webber again suffered mechanical failure in the sister car. Romain Grosjean again showed race day class to drive through from 17th on the grid with a single-stop race to the podium after his appalling qualifying to once more underline his quality for a 2014 race seat. Despite Webber's retirement Red Bull also wrapped up the constructors championship with three races still to go.
Into the Weekend
India, one of the newest tracks on the calendar, returned for its third and potentially final instalment with the drivers' championship all but sewn up. As another modern Tilke-designed circuit it has offered little excitement in its first two outings on the calendar, but went ahead after a legal challenge regarding tax irregularities that was lodged prior to the race. Red Bull intended to extend their dominance at the head of the pack to drive towards the constructors championship, already almost out of reach to any of the pursuing teams and winnable in India, and follow up their Japanese victory with the title for Vettel whom only needed to finish fifth or higher to seal it. Lotus hoped to continue their resurgent form to the end of the season in the chase for second in the manufacturers' championship after two strong races on the trot. Ferrari, after conceding the drivers title, intended on strong points finishes after finding themselves further off the pace than they'd have liked in Japan. Mercedes were seeking a return to the sort of competitiveness that saw them win races in the summer after two poor races in a row that has let Ferrari hold onto second in the constructors' championship. After a fantastic sixth and seventh place finish for Sauber in Japan, the Swiss outfit were hoping to continue their run of points-scoring form into India to extend their lead on Torro Rosso and pursue sixth from a struggling Force India in the constructors. McLaren had looked stronger in Japan but fell back in the race and were hoping to challenge for solid points in India to consolidate their title position. With another poor, pointless outing in Japan, Force India lost further ground to McLaren and significant points to Sauber behind, leaving them with a fight on their hands to the end of the season. At their spiritually home grand prix, the former Jordan team were hankering to deliver a performance for the fans. After another poor outing plagued by problems and penalties, Torro Rosso failed to score again at Suzuka and were aiming to return themselves to the points to continue their battle with Sauber. After a tense finish between the Williams drivers in Japan, it was a return to business to try and gain anything from India after failing to challenge for points in recent races. Also there were significant rumours that Maldonado would leave the team for 2014, possibly to Lotus. After an all-action start in Japan that saw one Marussia and one Caterham tangle and retire immediately, the fight was back on for the final prize-winning position in the constructors' championship between the two. Caterham sought to take that position with their clear advantage in pace as Marussia intended to do anything possible to beat them to the finish.