Prancing Bull

It has been an incredible two years for us here,to get pole on Saturday and win the race on Sunday, the 25-year-old Vettel said at the presentation ceremony,drenched in champagne and flanked by Alonso and Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber. Its a very special Grand Prix, he added,getting a roar of approval from a packed,adoring grand stand.

It was Vettels fourth Grand Prix win in a row,his longest streak so far,but what truly explains his domination is that he has led each and every lap in the last three a feat never achieved since the great Ayrton Senna did so in 1989. But the stat that must have warmed Vettels heart the most on Sunday is that he now leads Alonso by 13 points,seven more than before the start of the race.

A comfortable lead is an elusive thing with three races to go. But of course,going there as the leader in the standings makes the track even more enjoyable, said Vettel. Oddly enough,the 13 point difference also happens to be the one big consolation that Alonso takes to the next race,Yas Marina in Abu Dhabi.

Alonso stays in contention

After Saturdays qualifying,Alonso looked in danger of falling well behind,maybe out of contention altogether. But he produced one of his finest performances of the season to control the damage. While in front Vettel flew off the pole,Alonso nearly pulled off a stunning double overtake on the two McLarens of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button,before the latter clawed back. Not for long,though. Once the Drag Reduction System an adjustable flap on the rear wing used by a chasing car for extra speed was enabled in the third lap,Alonso caught up with the 2009 world champion and left him in his wake.

Now,he had Webber five seconds ahead of him. Ferrari might not be the fastest when it comes to qualifying,far from it,but they have good race pace. Over 60 laps,the Ferrari cars can more than compete,especially the one in which Alonso sits. In an engrossing chase,Alonso kept taking fractions of a second per lap off Webber. And with the Aussie struggling with a faulty KERS Kinetic Energy Recovery System,a boost-button that lends pace,it was a matter of time before Alonso passed him.

Schumachers fall season

The retirement-bound Michael Schumachers final season in a sport he once ruled is proving to be all about,well,retirements. The seven-time world champion,who already had seven DNFs this season,signed off from the Indian Grand Prix in a manner that was not just disappointing but also pitiable. A contact with Jean-Eric Vergnes Toro Rosso on Lap 1 left him with a tyre puncture and at the back of the grid. He was lapped by Baby Schumi Sebastian Vettel on Lap 8 but soldiered on before retiring on the 57th lap his eighth of the season. The stat wasnt lost on him. We have done 17 races and we have had eight retirements,so nearly 50 retirements. Well,thats not a statistic we are used to,certainly not, he said later.

Mercedes have struggled with reliability all year around,leaving the veteran languishing on leaderboard spots he had never known before. Schumacher is currently 14th in the drivers standings,closer to backmarkers Narain Karthikeyan and Pedro de la Rosa than leaders Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso by far his worst position on the table since his debut in 1991,where he finished 14th. Asked if his career,which has just three races left,could still end on one last high,Schumacher said: It would be nice,very clearly. But Im not expecting it and Im not very sentimental about it.

Sidelights

Unity is slow

What would it be like if the 24 best drivers in the world put together their knowledge and skills for a lap around one of the fastest circuits on the Formula 1 calendar? Terribly slow,as racing fans at the BIC discovered on race day. For a lap that the slowest man during qualifying clocked in a minute and 30 seconds,the best of the best put together managed a time of 18 minutes. A possible reason for this could be the fact that it wasnt in a Formula 1 car,but on the back of an open-roofed truck during the pre-race parade. On a day when the fastest time around the BIC was set on its very last lap by Jenson Button a fraction over a minute and 25,the slowest was recorded on its very first. By Button and 23 others.

A vast,diverse home

The Indian Grand Prix is Narain Karthikeyans home race,and the crowds absolutely love him here. When F1s on-circuit commentator finally got hold of Karthikeyan after all his hand waving around the circuit,he received a thunderous roar from the crowd for just saying: Narain the home boy,ladies and gentlemen. Then the commentator had a question. Would you like to say a few words in Hindi to these lovable fans of yours,Narain? Karthikeyan paused and replied: I do not speak Hindi. I am not from this part of the country. Incredible,considering even Sebastian Vettel had a few words in Hindi when he was asked previously. Maybe the next time the German laps him on the circuit,Karthikeyan could take a tip or two in speaking the language.

Bullish Vettel

Speaking of Vettels vocabulary skills,the man has a natural charm during interviews. Last year,he wowed fans with Tumhari aankhen bahut khoobsurat hain and dhanyavaad. This time around,moments after he finished a very successful race,former F1 driver Martin Brundle informed him that he had equalled Aryton Senna by leading every lap of every race for three GPs in a row. You are in elite company, Brundle said. Vettel stopped him from saying more. Dont say things like that! We all will remember Aryton forever,not just because he was successful and he had these kinds of numbers speaking for him,but he was a great person, he replied. Later,when asked by an Italian journalist about rumours of a move to Ferrari,Vettel said: I dont want to say anything about these rumours. Or actually,theres one thing I would like to say. Theres no reason to write anything or report anything because Im 100 per cent behind Red Bull. Theres clearly some bullst in the press. Aditya Iyer