2013 Indian Grand Prix grid

2013 Indian Grand Prix

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Row 11. Sebastian Vettel 1’24.119
Red Bull
2. Nico Rosberg 1’24.871
Mercedes
Row 23. Lewis Hamilton 1’24.941
Mercedes
4. Mark Webber 1’25.047
Red Bull
Row 35. Felipe Massa 1’25.201
Ferrari
6. Kimi Raikkonen 1’25.248
Lotus
Row 47. Nico Hulkenberg 1’25.334
Sauber
8. Fernando Alonso 1’25.826
Ferrari
Row 59. Sergio Perez 1’26.153
McLaren
10. Jenson Button 1’26.487
McLaren
Row 611. Daniel Ricciardo 1’25.519
Toro Rosso
12. Paul di Resta 1’25.711
Force India
Row 713. Adrian Sutil 1’25.74
Force India
14. Jean-Eric Vergne 1’25.798
Toro Rosso
Row 815. Valtteri Bottas 1’26.134
Williams
16. Esteban Gutierrez 1’26.336
Sauber
Row 917. Romain Grosjean 1’26.577
Lotus
18. Pastor Maldonado 1’26.842
Williams
Row 1019. Jules Bianchi 1’26.97
Marussia
20. Giedo van der Garde 1’27.105
Caterham
Row 1121. Charles Pic 1’27.487
Caterham
22. Max Chilton 1’28.138
Marussia

2013 Indian Grand Prix

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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...

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85 comments on “2013 Indian Grand Prix grid”

  1. On pole by just a bit.

    1. He is doped with red bull. Also he sacrifices cute baby pandas before the race.

      1. @eljueta Everyone else sacrifices the ugly ones, that’s why they don’t get pole. :D

      2. CarnivorousPope (@)
        26th October 2013, 20:55

        he will look like a panda at the race if he is on that much rebull on Saturday

  2. Vettel was so far ahead, he had enough time to do a bit of DIY in Parc Ferme…

  3. No penalties so far but Hamilton has said on the team radio he was held up by Vettel:

    https://twitter.com/f1fanaticlive/status/394034445210378240

    1. Give him a 21 place grid drop penalty for the sake of excitement. ;-)

      1. You don’t want that. RB would just pull an all-nighter and start the car from the pits with even better race setup (if that’s possible). Then Vettel would bast through the field. If you want excitement surely you want him to start mid pack. I’m happy with the results though.

        1. But Abi Dhabi 2012 was one of the best races I’ve ever seen ^^

      2. A 3 spot penality is more realistic (I haven’t seen the footage), that would promote the 2 Mercedes in the front row.

        1. And Webber to third… ;)

    2. Vettel get a penalty! yea right! and finally they talked on bbc about track limits, the last two years vettel has exceeded that track limits on almost every pole lap hes done, rules are rules!

    3. @keithcollantine I don’t recall seeing him being held up. I do recall seeing him passing a Red Bull that was fairly stationary and offline. Is he just being a baby? I was just about to stop hating him but this is ridiculous.

      There is no way he would have been anywhere near Vettel even if his fast lap had been compromised. I feel like this is a stunt to try and secure a better position by whining.

      1. (@neiana

        Mate, as Rosberg and Hamilton started their second laps, Rosberg went passed a Red Bull on the long back straight, and with live timing, that RB was the last one who went out, which was Vettel. Rosberg wasn’t held up, but Lewis was 2-3 secs behind Rosberg which I also tried to think if he was going to get held up because Vettel was at the hairpin onto turn 5. However, Lewis’ sector times still showed the same in the first sector with Nico. Lewis just said right now, that he was held up in turn 8-9 *second sector*

        1. @krichelle

          ah, so something off screen, then. I’ll withhold judgment until a ruling comes down. If there is no grid penalty, I will consider Hamilton a whining baby. If there is, I will just ignore him like usual. :)

    4. I just checked timings by sector and on his last fast lap, Hamilton overtook Vettel, who was on his last outlap, in sector 3. This is where he could have been impeded. But frankly, Hamilton’s time was still pretty good, so the impeding can’t have been much.

  4. This will be interesting, RB decided to split their strategies again. I want another Red Bull showdown before the season ends to spic things up!!!

  5. Why did Alonso not do a run on the softs in the final part of Q3? He was only 0.3 seconds slower than Seb in Q2, and even if he had merely replicated his time of 1:24.8, he would have been on the front row.

    1. He wanted the different strategy. That’s why.

      1. @magon4
        Perhaps, but I don’t think it will work. He will get stuck behind slower cars in the first stint. Ferrari should’ve followed Mercedes.

        All this on a Saturday where Ferrari actually looked reasonably competitive compared to all the other teams (bar Red Bull).

        1. It is true they looked to be up to facing Mercedes on pace. But if he gets a good start he just can sit in there and go much longer, having the overtaking power in the last stint.

        2. Steph (@stephanief1990)
          26th October 2013, 11:14

          @Kingshark who knows how it will play out? Alonso usually gets good starts, those on softs will have to pit fairly early anyway which will move him up if he is stuck behind anyone and when he has to put the softs on they’ll last a bit longer than those who qualified on them. The Ferrari is too slow and Seb always manages to up his game whenever the pressure is on in qualifying – being a bit behind in Q2 doesn’t mean much when Seb always pulls it out of the bag in Q3 to blow everyone away and he has been in another world this weekend. Ferrari took a gamble to try something different because just trying to keep up with Seb isn’t really getting them anywhere.

      2. @magon4
        Perhaps, but I don’t think it will work. He will get stuck behind slower cars in the first stint. Ferrari should’ve followed Mercedes.

        All this on a Saturday where Ferrari actually looked reasonably competitive compared to all the other teams (bar Red Bull).

  6. No surprises really, apart from Grosjean. And could someone explain to me how significant it is to start with the medium tyres? Because I can’t see a big advantage coming from it.

    1. Just to last longer for the first stint.

    2. @toiago if you’re at the front of the grid with medium tires, you force those behind you on soft tires to waste their tires trying to get around you. In the end, you’d get to run the soft tires later in the race while you’re essentially at the same place on track as they are, thus giving you the advantage.

      Unless you’re Webber, in which case you can’t pass a slower car with several laps older and slower tires.

      1. + the softer tyre will last longer in a car who has less fuel, so running an option tyre at the end of the race is better

        1. Not always, as Alonso experienced in last year’s British GP. I know some of the benefits of doing this “reversed” strategy, but I have my doubts also because of the fact that, if it was so critical, why Vettel wouldn’t use it as well? Such is his advantage over the rest of the field in either compound.

          1. The biggest problem is the lead contender in this particular strategy is Webber. The Webber who couldn’t pass Grosjean two weeks ago. Grosjean who had older primes and Webber had options (if I recall correctly?). So giving Webber this particular strategy is pretty much saying “here’s a second chance.”

          2. Because if he starts first (which is a good bet), he will have clean air to pull ahead enough and render moot the opposite strategy.

    3. softs go off after 5-10 laps so when you pit you come out in the middle of the traffic of slower cars on old mediums.

    4. @toiago if you start on the mediums, you can run for perhaps half the race from the start. That means you will maintain track position, whereas the soft runners will have to pit early and lose track position. So the top 3 will likely have to overtake the medium runners – quite tricky as they don’t drop off all that much it appears.

      1. @vettel1 – I wouldn’t bet on in that the medium lasts that much longer. On high fuel load they tend to grain faster and the softs won’t be that bad tomorrow, considering how much the track evolved since yesterday. But we’ll see , the split of strategies definitely spices it up.

        1. Exactly, in some previous races we’ve seen the mediums last for more or less 10 laps in some cars. That’s why I don’t see a great advantage in running them for the first two stints, and then the softs on the last one.

  7. Webber is the main challenger for the win tomorrow :O

    I wonder if Vettel could have had pole position with the prime tyres …

    1. I think he could IMHO

    2. @paeschli It’s more than 1 second difference, I believe, between the tires and his pole is only about .75 ahead of Nico. Chances are he would’ve been third unless he had a REAL cracking lap.

    3. @paeschli quite possibly: Webber was 0.176s behind second placed man Rosberg, so if Vettel could have gained 2 tenths over Webber (not exactly unheard of!) then likely he could have.

      1. However, that is with the benefit of hindsight. The only way to have been certain of pole was to do a lap on the softs.

      2. I think you’re right but I’m also happy that it is like it is now. It will be tricky for Vettel to win with Mark being so close with an alternative strategy :)

    4. (@paeschli

      I wonder if Webber could have sandwiched Rosberg and displacing Lewis, that would be huge considering that if he did it, then he would be on the clean side of the grid. Watch out for this guy tomorrow, we might have a showdown if he gets to overtake the two Silver arrows.

      1. @Krichelle

        You mean like he overtook a Lotus on worse tires, two weeks ago? I’d put my money on Webber being third at best, maybe not on the podium at all.

        1. (@neiana

          Remember, that in the long runs *although this is unbiased because the cars run in clean air* that Webber was matching Vettel in the 1.29’s. He was optimistic after qualifying so I wouldn’t count him out considering that Mercedes’ pace is quite slower than him and Vettel. And, the DRS is longer this year so you never know what kind of CHEESE can happen, especially with DRS being somewhat “misplaced here on some tracks”

    5. Chris (@tophercheese21)
      26th October 2013, 16:58

      @paeschli

      In hindsight, I think Webber could have had a good crack at pole.
      He was only 9 tenths off pole on the mediums, so if the Softs give you around 1s then I think he’s right there.

  8. Any Idea why Lotus sent Kimi out so early ? He came into the pits when others were still starting their final laps.

    1. Have a free track?

  9. wow, Bianchi almost caught that Williams. impressive.

    1. Didn’t Maldonado have a rather poor lap, though?

    2. And Van der Garde beated Pic, not bad either :)

  10. Kimi’s performance was pretty poor.

  11. Alonso will make podium tomorrow, behind the Bulls.

    1. OmarR-Pepper (@)
      26th October 2013, 19:57

      @magon4 if it’s behind both Red Bulls, Vettel is the champion. That 5th place mentioned more often is only if Alonso wins. If Alonso is 3rd, Vettel is automatically champion, even if he retires.

      1. Relax, Vettel will be champ tomorrow basically no matter what happens…

  12. poor Romain. at this point i think he’s about the only one who can play with the Bulls. let’s see what he can do in the race.

  13. Having just watched the full on board of Vettel’s lap, I just recalled a comment from Hamilton last year saying Vettel could miss a few apexes and still get pole.

    Lewis, watch that lap.

    1. Was that as nasty and dirty a lap as it looked? It looked pretty appalling for a pole, to be honest.

      1. @neiana you are kidding, right?

        1. @vettel1 No. I think he had maybe 3 tenths or more that he left on the track.

          1. @neiana where exactly were these three tenths? There was a tiny lock-up at the final corner, which probably cost him 2 hundredths of a second. That’s all I could see.

          2. @vettel1 well I don’t have a special rewind so I could tell you exactly. He’s on pole, though, so no point in having a discussion about whether he could have been more awesome than he was. :)

          3. @neiana his lap really was not the problem ;)

          4. You can review Vettel’s lap here @neiana: it’s pretty close to perfection. He could probably have taken a little more apex in T5 and T16, that’s about it really.

    2. Jack (@jackisthestig)
      26th October 2013, 21:24

      He’s getting really smooth, starting to make Button look like Maldonado.

  14. Vettel will lose his record of leading all laps in India.

    1. Hard to say. 2013 was just as close as 2011 and 2012.

      1. I doubt he can pull a 20-odd-second gap on his first stint on Webber.

        1. @mike-dee I have a sneaking feeling Alonso will be ahead of Webber by the time Vettel pits but I still agree with your assessment. If Vettel takes care of his tires to stretch them, he can’t get the gap. If he tries to pull out the gap, he’ll have to pit earlier. Either way I seriously doubt he’ll keep that record.

          1. I think winning the race is his main concern ^^

        2. Its not that hard actually.
          Say the options are a second a lap quicker than the primes, and they last for 10 laps -> That’s 10 seconds just because of being on a quicker tyre.

          Vettel will also have the benefit of being in clear air as compared to Webber, which should also account for 6 tenths of a lap -> say another 6 secs

          Plus Webber will probably lose a position or two, so I think it should be possible for Vettel to still lead every lap of the race tomorrow

          1. I don’t think they will last 10 laps and be one second quicker. It is either or.

          2. Yep @mike-dee, the degradation curve will lead them to be even with or worse than the mediums by the end of the stint. @todfod

  15. I had Vettel with a 1.24.122 in the prediction championship… so close! :D
    Strategi should be interesting tomorrow. Guessing the podium will be VET-WEB-ALO.

    1. I had no idea and predicted a 1:24.000 for Vettel, it’s my closest guess so far ^^

    2. Yeah I had a close one too – 1:21.167 .

      Gotta agree with your podium prediction . Thinking Kimi in P4 and Rosberg in P5

      1. Oops I meant 1:24.167 :)

  16. I swear I could see Vettel yawning through his visor ;-D and all the other 21 drivers cursing :-).

  17. Rubbish job again from Max Chilton, however we all know he comes on F1Fanatic after each race to try and promote himself :-)

  18. Just heard from someoen down in the paddock that Pirelli have told the teams that they should not try a 1-stop because they have “Concerns” about the medium tyres doing more than 20 laps.

    Get these jokers out of F1 already!

    1. Ted Kravitz just basically confirmed this at the end of sky’s qualifying broadcasters.

    2. It wouldn’t make sense anyway. The degradation would probably be too much. I can’t see anyone using the soft for more than 12-15 laps (and already then you will lose 1-2 seconds per lap in the last few laps compared to the medium). This would leave at least 45 laps on the medium, which is a big ask. We have not seen anyone run a really long stint in practice though so who knows

      @AlanBoyo

  19. Oh man poor Grosjean :/ Then again the gamble won’t always pay off; I hope he can fight through the field tomorrow.

  20. Hoping for a HAM VET showdown

  21. I was actually hoping this race would get cancelled, it’d be a mercy rule.

    Now I get to watch Vettel lead all the laps at yet another Bull-Ring. “Yay”

    1. @saint-jay Or you could simply not watch the race.

    2. Don’t worry, @saint-jay , Vettel will need to pit quite soon so then Webber will lead. Who in turn will pit earlier than Alonso, who will then be leader. Possibly one of the McLaren’s will lead at some point as well, but I guess Vettel will overtake them before they come in for their first stop. The lead will then alternate once more between Vettel and Webber before Vettel takes the chequered flag first.

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