Vettel leads another Red Bull one-two in India

2013 Indian Grand Prix second practice

Posted on

| Written by

Second practice for the Indian Grand Prix had the same result as the previous five practice sessions at the Buddh International Circuit: Sebastian Vettel was quickest.

As in first practice the Red Bull drivers topped the times, with almost three tenths of a second separating Vettel from team mate Mark Webber. Vettel had a KERS problem earlier in the session as he did on Saturday in Japan.

Romain Grosjean came closest to the Red Bulls but was almost half a second slower than Vettel. Kimi Raikkonen was eighth after running wide at turn ten during his fastest lap on the soft tyres.

Several drivers found the front-left tyre was wearing out very quickly, particularly when using the soft compound.

Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso completed the top five ahead of their respectively team mates – Alonso avoiding a repeat of his first practice gearbox problems. McLaren pair Sergio Perez and Jenson Button were ninth and tenth.

Pastor Maldonado missed the final 20 minutes of running after suffering a wheel nut problem on his Williams for the second Friday running. His front-right wheel nut came off in turn five, and he had to pull to a stop before the pit lane entrance, though unlike in Japan the wheel remained on the car.

Pos.No.DriverCarBest lapGapLaps
11Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault1’25.72235
22Mark WebberRed Bull-Renault1’26.0110.28938
38Romain GrosjeanLotus-Renault1’26.2200.49836
410Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’26.3990.67736
53Fernando AlonsoFerrari1’26.4300.70839
69Nico RosbergMercedes1’26.5820.86040
74Felipe MassaFerrari1’26.6010.87941
87Kimi RaikkonenLotus-Renault1’26.6320.91032
96Sergio PerezMcLaren-Mercedes1’26.8571.13540
105Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes1’26.9721.25039
1119Daniel RicciardoToro Rosso-Ferrari1’27.3041.58217
1215Adrian SutilForce India-Mercedes1’27.3751.65336
1317Valtteri BottasWilliams-Renault1’27.4291.70731
1411Nico HulkenbergSauber-Ferrari1’27.4911.76940
1514Paul di RestaForce India-Mercedes1’27.6081.88638
1616Pastor MaldonadoWilliams-Renault1’27.7201.99823
1712Esteban GutierrezSauber-Ferrari1’27.9492.22734
1818Jean-Eric VergneToro Rosso-Ferrari1’28.4312.70930
1921Giedo van der GardeCaterham-Renault1’28.6922.97039
2022Jules BianchiMarussia-Cosworth1’28.7993.07732
2120Charles PicCaterham-Renault1’29.3663.64437
2223Max ChiltonMarussia-Cosworth1’30.1644.44227

2013 Indian Grand Prix

Browse all 2013 Indian Grand Prix articles

Image © Red Bull/Getty

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

29 comments on “Vettel leads another Red Bull one-two in India”

  1. So it looks like this will be yet another tyre management race. So more ‘maintain a 2 second gap’ & less ‘push’ messages to be heard over the radios.

    I am growing real tired of this nonsense now, Im sick of what F1 has become to the point where I don’t have much love left for it.
    I’ll watch Vettel/Red Bull wrap up the titles & that may very well be it for me as far as F1 is concerned, Im sick of the tyre management, Im sick of artificial highway passing with DRS & Im just sick of been constantly told ‘But its entertaining’ when frankly as far as im concerned its far more boring & significantly less entertaining/interesting.

    Watching the level of tyre management were stuck with now, Having tyres been the dominating factor of practically every weekend as they have been the last 2 years & having 95% of the ‘passing’ been done easily at the push of a button is anything but entertaining in my view.

    1. Don’t leave us Dizzy. See if the grass is greener in 2014 before you leave ;-)

      1. @full-throttle-f1 We have green technology in 2014, of course it will be!

        Hue hue

    2. That’s one way to look at it. Not saying it is right or wrong. But when Pirelli choose conservative compounds last year (or even this year, at other races), and tirewear was minimal, the race suddenly get rated “boring”. Pirelli is basicly doomed if they do, and doomed if they don’t. There is always someone complaining.

      1. The weird thing is, until Pirelli showed up, I don’t think anyone was blaming the boring races on the tyres.

      2. @me4me – COTA had a conservative tyre choice but it was a great race. imo, the tires don’t make the spectacle – they can only ruin it.

        1. @tmf42 – 1 result does not make that true. Counterargument being Australia 2012, with quickly degrading tyres. It’s currently the highest rated race of the year.

          1. @me4me – not saying it does. Just wanted to say that not all races with conservative tyres are boring and maybe it’s worth looking into alternatives. A lot of races this year with a lot of tyre management got rated poorly as well – so it can’t be the rubber that makes the show.

    3. petebaldwin (@)
      25th October 2013, 13:20

      2014 brings with it uncertainty so I will go into the season excited as I normally do. Pirelli have already said they are going conservative next year (who can blame them!?) so tyre management shouldn’t be an issue.

      My main worry is the fuel situation. I haven’t seen anything to suggest most races won’t be mainly spent in fuel saving mode.

    4. I 100% agree, Its getting silly this season.

      I also find it a bit odd how some of the fans who support the extreme nursing of the tyres we have seen this season are so against the prospect of fuel saving next year. Both amount to the same thing, Drivers tootling around well off the pace been told to run to a lap delta & at times to not race the cars around them.

      Fuel saving in Indycar & Champcar before it has been an issue for years & its a constant sore point amongst fans yet sadly something various rule changes over the years (From bigger/smaller fuel tanks, pit windows, longer/shorter races & the removal of driver controlled fuel mix settings) has failed to solve.

  2. 0,5 second betwen vettel and grosjean, i really hope grosjean have a magnificent start like last race

  3. Should we get hour hopes of at least a mildly tense race up after we saw Red Bull struggling to make their soft tyres last?

    1. I missed FP2, but wasn’t everyone having the same problem (not just Red Bull)?

      1. Can I pitch my idea of Grid Reversing?

        Vettel in 22nd and Chilton 1st, that would make for some good ‘overtaking’.

        1. Would make for a pretty boring qualifying as everybody tries to go as slowly as possible!

          @full-throttle-f1

          1. arrgh, why is there always complications! xD

          2. Not if you can earn chamionship points for good qualification results. I like this idea!

          3. Then just make it a 2-race event already, with reverse grid on the second!

    2. I think that the race will be only on mediums, except the first few laps. It’s true that Ferrari and Lotus were able to do several laps on the soft tyres, but they were almost three seconds slower than the Red Bull with mediums. I don’t know if it’s worth doing 10 laps on those tyres for Ferrari and Lotus.

  4. Hulkenberg said on team radio at the end: “Car is mega on prime!”

    McLaren, watch out for your 5th place!

    1. He’s being the entertaining factor last couple of races, so let’s hope so.

    2. I doubt McLaren are really under threat from Sauber. In the last 4 races, when Hulkenberg started his points scoring streak, Sauber scored 38 points. In the same period, McLaren scored 18 points. There are four races to go, and the gap between McLaren and Sauber is 38 points. If the form of both teams stays about the same, Sauber might expect to catch up to within 18 points of McLaren at the end of the season, but unless McLaren becomes horrible and Sauber finds some extra improvement, I think Sauber will finish 6th in the championship.

      For Force India, on the other hand, the gap from Sauber has been reduced by 37 points in the last 4 races, as they have only scored 1 point. Seeing that the current gap between Force India and Sauber is only 17 points, with four races to go Force India will likely drop to 7th at the end of the season, while Sauber take 6th.

      1. It really depends on whether Gutierrez can get more decent points finishes. If he can, this could be a problem for McLaren.

        I agree though that it is more likely that McLaren will retain 5th.

    3. Dog of a McL … it’s hard to believe we’re doing math vs. a sauber reborn on ’12 tyres

  5. Do you think Mercedes have more in hand? I don’t think they are so behind, on pace with Ferrari (talking about one lap pace).

  6. I liked the Vettel rebellion:

    Rocquelin: “We think torque five would be better at this point.”
    Vettel: “Negative. I don’t like torque five.”

  7. Grosjean and the Hulk to shine again, while the Bulls storm to 1-2?

  8. Missed the Free practice, i wanted to know about the results of free practice of the long runs?
    Are there any surprises in store? Do the bulls have a second even in long runs? :(

  9. Yawn. At least the race is on early so I don’t waste the afternoon watching Vettel bore me to tears.

Comments are closed.