“The Red Bulls are unfortunately looking incredibly quick,” said Lotus trackside operations director Alan Permane following today’s practice sessions, “but we’re leading the charge behind them”.
Just how far behind Red Bull’s rivals are at the Buddh International Circuit? The gap on the time sheets at the end of second practice was half a second. But it seems likely Sebastian Vettel left some of the RB9’s potential unexploited on his fastest lap on Saturday.
Several drivers found they got a better time out of the soft tyres on their second flying lap. Romain Grosjean, who was ‘best of the rest’ behind the Red Bulls, improved his time by two tenths of a second.
Vettel was also on course to improve on his second lap but dived into the pits before completing it. As the data below shows he set the quickest times in all three sectors and Grosjean was an ominous three-quarters of a second off his pace.
No doubt the picture will change on Saturday as we have often seen in the past. But realistically, whatever kind of fuel load Red Bull were running today, it’s hard to envisage any of their rivals threatening them tomorrow.
So Sunday’s race is likely to be a Red Bull benefit, much as the previous two races at the Buddh International Circuit were. But expect the tyre strategies to mark a departure from the previous races.
Pirelli have brought significantly softer tyres to this weekend’s race which should prevent it from being a one-stop race for most drivers as it has been before. The hard/soft combination has been replaced with medium/soft. But to really appreciate how big a departure this is, consider that the 2013 medium tyre compound is approximate to last year’s soft.
Given that, it’s no surprise the teams are finding this year’s soft tyre very fragile. Pirelli expect two or three pit stops per driver on Sunday. The front-left especially takes a pounding around the long turn ten and eleven right-hander.
In practice drivers found the tyre only lasted around half-a-dozen laps or so. Nico Hulkenberg exclaimed “Jesus that looks bad” when he saw the state of the blistering on his front-left when he came into the pits.
Most drivers did their longest runs on the medium tyres compounds. Fernando Alonso persevered with the soft for several laps and the rate of drop-off in his lap times on the chart below was much quicker than for those on the mediums.
“The [medium] tyre seems to last forever, while the [soft] tyre doesn’t” Button commented Button after practice. “There’s a very big difference between the two tyre compounds so I think we’ll see some very interesting strategies this weekend.”
Whether that happens depends on how many of the teams can make the soft tyre last long enough to only need one further pit stop after getting rid of them. The size of the performance gap between the two will likely lead drivers to run the soft for the first stint then switch to the medium for the rest of the race.
But however the strategies play out the battle for victory is surely going to be a Red Bull-only affair.
Here’s all the data from practice for the Indian Grand Prix:
Longest stint comparison
This chart shows all the drivers’ lap times (in seconds) during their longest unbroken stint:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | |
Sebastian Vettel | 90.892 | 90.66 | 92.315 | 93.365 | 96.044 | 91.392 | 94.94 | 89.997 | 90.48 | 91.358 | 90.781 | 90.567 | 90.248 | 89.987 | 89.98 | 90.184 | 106.668 | 89.785 | ||||
Mark Webber | 91.626 | 91.554 | 91.295 | 91.676 | 92.458 | 96.468 | 91.431 | 94.844 | 90.854 | 90.627 | 91.117 | 91.079 | 92.496 | 91.61 | 89.909 | 89.884 | 89.946 | 94.659 | 90.097 | |||
Fernando Alonso | 92.022 | 92.359 | 92.963 | 94.367 | 94.324 | 93.976 | 93.608 | 93.14 | 93.396 | 93.685 | ||||||||||||
Felipe Massa | 92.658 | 92.422 | 92.475 | 92.384 | 92.129 | 93.349 | 94.572 | 93.407 | 95.128 | 91.882 | 94.866 | 91.693 | 92.484 | 91.714 | 92.325 | 91.591 | 91.278 | 91.171 | 91.192 | 91.06 | ||
Jenson Button | 92.552 | 91.921 | 91.851 | 91.906 | 91.955 | 91.901 | 96.465 | 91.733 | 98.635 | 91.578 | 91.243 | 91.676 | ||||||||||
Sergio Perez | 92.62 | 92.671 | 92.337 | 92.625 | 92.702 | 96.965 | 92.005 | 92.932 | 92.982 | 92.38 | 92.225 | 92.202 | 92.963 | 92.535 | 95.157 | 103.364 | 91.469 | 91.065 | 91.292 | 91.138 | 91.066 | 91.327 |
Kimi Raikkonen | 93.824 | 93.26 | 97.173 | 92.751 | 93.343 | 93.082 | 93.649 | |||||||||||||||
Romain Grosjean | 91.709 | 91.426 | 90.798 | 91.089 | 90.865 | 91.917 | 100.113 | 90.596 | 90.431 | 90.464 | 94.468 | 90.666 | ||||||||||
Nico Rosberg | 92.216 | 91.467 | 94.233 | 91.615 | 95.779 | 91.087 | 90.824 | 90.95 | 97.612 | 91.735 | 90.637 | |||||||||||
Lewis Hamilton | 92.874 | 95.137 | 92.737 | 92.718 | 92.886 | 92.617 | 93.283 | |||||||||||||||
Nico Hulkenberg | 93.59 | 92.816 | 92.359 | 93.213 | 96.273 | 92.425 | 92.861 | 93.264 | 91.921 | 91.974 | 99.594 | 92.599 | 91.452 | 91.381 | ||||||||
Esteban Gutierrez | 95.436 | 92.807 | 93.009 | 92.877 | 92.78 | |||||||||||||||||
Paul di Resta | 92.203 | 93.069 | 97.331 | 92.06 | 91.913 | 91.761 | 91.901 | 91.94 | 92.02 | |||||||||||||
Adrian Sutil | 94.437 | 93.363 | 92.781 | 93.18 | 94.161 | 93.472 | 93.02 | 93.551 | 98.403 | 92.134 | 92.288 | |||||||||||
Pastor Maldonado | 94.264 | 94.951 | 94.987 | 94.996 | 94.222 | |||||||||||||||||
Valtteri Bottas | 111.308 | 95.552 | 94.078 | 95.123 | 94.741 | 94.645 | 94.522 | 94.299 | 94.794 | |||||||||||||
Jean-Eric Vergne | 93.211 | 93.086 | 93.407 | 93.57 | 109.751 | 92.9 | 92.524 | 92.649 | 92.4 | 92.225 | 92.121 | |||||||||||
Daniel Ricciardo | 89.015 | 104.807 | 96.498 | 88.021 | 105.664 | 88.029 | ||||||||||||||||
Charles Pic | 95.899 | 95.116 | 95.169 | 95.208 | 95.074 | 95.559 | 95.825 | 99.195 | 95.699 | 95.28 | 94.286 | 94.2 | 94.631 | 93.837 | 93.723 | 94.312 | 93.642 | 93.371 | ||||
Giedo van der Garde | 98.267 | 96.053 | 95.616 | 94.972 | 95.116 | 96.213 | 95.276 | 94.919 | 94.299 | 94.333 | 94.232 | 93.936 | 93.734 | 93.457 | 93.721 | 93.487 | 93.407 | 93.323 | ||||
Jules Bianchi | 93.714 | 94.462 | 94.237 | 93.886 | 93.3 | 93.298 | 93.465 | 93.13 | 92.5 | |||||||||||||
Max Chilton | 95.925 | 95.241 | 95.316 | 98.267 | 94.378 | 94.314 | 94.284 | 95.477 | 94.4 |
Sector times and ultimate lap times
Pos | No. | Driver | Car | S1 | S2 | S3 | Ultimate | Gap | Deficit to best |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 1 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull-Renault | 41.885 (1) | 22.279 (1) | 21.202 (1) | 1’25.366 | 0.356 | |
2 | 2 | Mark Webber | Red Bull-Renault | 42.130 (3) | 22.444 (2) | 21.225 (2) | 1’25.799 | 0.433 | 0.212 |
3 | 8 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus-Renault | 42.063 (2) | 22.617 (4) | 21.460 (7) | 1’26.140 | 0.774 | 0.080 |
4 | 10 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 42.445 (12) | 22.576 (3) | 21.281 (3) | 1’26.302 | 0.936 | 0.097 |
5 | 9 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 42.164 (4) | 22.773 (8) | 21.449 (4) | 1’26.386 | 1.020 | 0.196 |
6 | 3 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 42.314 (7) | 22.664 (6) | 21.452 (6) | 1’26.430 | 1.064 | 0.000 |
7 | 7 | Kimi Raikkonen | Lotus-Renault | 42.323 (8) | 22.623 (5) | 21.613 (10) | 1’26.559 | 1.193 | 0.073 |
8 | 4 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 42.171 (5) | 22.979 (12) | 21.451 (5) | 1’26.601 | 1.235 | 0.000 |
9 | 6 | Sergio Perez | McLaren-Mercedes | 42.254 (6) | 22.801 (9) | 21.692 (11) | 1’26.747 | 1.381 | 0.110 |
10 | 5 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 42.402 (10) | 23.059 (13) | 21.511 (9) | 1’26.972 | 1.606 | 0.000 |
11 | 15 | Adrian Sutil | Force India-Mercedes | 42.398 (9) | 23.078 (14) | 21.762 (13) | 1’27.238 | 1.872 | 0.137 |
12 | 19 | Daniel Ricciardo | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 42.649 (13) | 22.731 (7) | 21.875 (16) | 1’27.255 | 1.889 | 0.049 |
13 | 17 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams-Renault | 42.780 (16) | 22.927 (11) | 21.722 (12) | 1’27.429 | 2.063 | 0.000 |
14 | 11 | Nico Hulkenberg | Sauber-Ferrari | 42.438 (11) | 23.089 (15) | 21.964 (17) | 1’27.491 | 2.125 | 0.000 |
15 | 16 | Pastor Maldonado | Williams-Renault | 42.817 (17) | 22.910 (10) | 21.778 (14) | 1’27.505 | 2.139 | 0.215 |
16 | 14 | Paul di Resta | Force India-Mercedes | 42.752 (15) | 23.292 (16) | 21.498 (8) | 1’27.542 | 2.176 | 0.066 |
17 | 12 | Esteban Gutierrez | Sauber-Ferrari | 42.690 (14) | 23.477 (18) | 21.782 (15) | 1’27.949 | 2.583 | 0.000 |
18 | 18 | Jean-Eric Vergne | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 42.979 (21) | 23.399 (17) | 22.009 (19) | 1’28.387 | 3.021 | 0.044 |
19 | 21 | Giedo van der Garde | Caterham-Renault | 42.894 (18) | 23.657 (20) | 21.974 (18) | 1’28.525 | 3.159 | 0.167 |
20 | 22 | Jules Bianchi | Marussia-Cosworth | 42.970 (20) | 23.564 (19) | 22.020 (20) | 1’28.554 | 3.188 | 0.245 |
21 | 20 | Charles Pic | Caterham-Renault | 42.949 (19) | 23.734 (21) | 22.123 (21) | 1’28.806 | 3.440 | 0.560 |
22 | 23 | Max Chilton | Marussia-Cosworth | 43.387 (22) | 23.973 (22) | 22.720 (22) | 1’30.080 | 4.714 | 0.084 |
Complete practice times
Pos | Driver | Car | FP1 | FP2 | Total laps | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull-Renault | 1’26.683 | 1’25.722 | 59 | ||
2 | Mark Webber | Red Bull-Renault | 1’26.871 | 1’26.011 | 55 | ||
3 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus-Renault | 1’26.990 | 1’26.220 | 56 | ||
4 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1’27.227 | 1’26.399 | 57 | ||
5 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1’28.214 | 1’26.430 | 45 | ||
6 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1’26.899 | 1’26.582 | 63 | ||
7 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1’27.692 | 1’26.601 | 62 | ||
8 | Kimi Raikkonen | Lotus-Renault | 1’28.730 | 1’26.632 | 50 | ||
9 | Sergio Perez | McLaren | 1’27.416 | 1’26.857 | 63 | ||
10 | Jenson Button | McLaren | 1’27.335 | 1’26.972 | 62 | ||
11 | Daniel Ricciardo | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1’28.336 | 1’27.304 | 35 | ||
12 | Adrian Sutil | Force India-Mercedes | 1’28.468 | 1’27.375 | 56 | ||
13 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams-Renault | 1’27.800 | 1’27.429 | 54 | ||
14 | Nico Hulkenberg | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’27.770 | 1’27.491 | 59 | ||
15 | Paul di Resta | Force India-Mercedes | 1’27.608 | 38 | |||
16 | Pastor Maldonado | Williams-Renault | 1’28.342 | 1’27.720 | 44 | ||
17 | Esteban Gutierrez | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’28.538 | 1’27.949 | 62 | ||
18 | Jean-Eric Vergne | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1’28.035 | 1’28.431 | 55 | ||
19 | Giedo van der Garde | Caterham-Renault | 1’29.413 | 1’28.692 | 63 | ||
20 | Jules Bianchi | Marussia-Cosworth | 1’29.560 | 1’28.799 | 52 | ||
21 | James Calado | Force India-Mercedes | 1’29.197 | 22 | |||
22 | Charles Pic | Caterham-Renault | 1’30.026 | 1’29.366 | 60 | ||
23 | Max Chilton | Marussia-Cosworth | 1’30.471 | 1’30.164 | 44 |
Speed trap
# | Driver | Car | Engine | Max speed (kph) | Gap | |
1 | 5 | Jenson Button | McLaren | Mercedes | 321.7 | |
2 | 12 | Esteban Gutierrez | Sauber | Ferrari | 319.6 | 2.1 |
3 | 14 | Paul di Resta | Force India | Mercedes | 319.4 | 2.3 |
4 | 15 | Adrian Sutil | Force India | Mercedes | 319.3 | 2.4 |
5 | 18 | Jean-Eric Vergne | Toro Rosso | Ferrari | 319.2 | 2.5 |
6 | 6 | Sergio Perez | McLaren | Mercedes | 318.9 | 2.8 |
7 | 19 | Daniel Ricciardo | Toro Rosso | Ferrari | 317.3 | 4.4 |
8 | 11 | Nico Hulkenberg | Sauber | Ferrari | 316.2 | 5.5 |
9 | 10 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | Mercedes | 315.4 | 6.3 |
10 | 9 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | Mercedes | 315.2 | 6.5 |
11 | 3 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | Ferrari | 314.9 | 6.8 |
12 | 4 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | Ferrari | 313.2 | 8.5 |
13 | 23 | Max Chilton | Marussia | Cosworth | 313.1 | 8.6 |
14 | 20 | Charles Pic | Caterham | Renault | 312.4 | 9.3 |
15 | 21 | Giedo van der Garde | Caterham | Renault | 312.2 | 9.5 |
16 | 1 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull | Renault | 312.2 | 9.5 |
17 | 22 | Jules Bianchi | Marussia | Cosworth | 312.1 | 9.6 |
18 | 2 | Mark Webber | Red Bull | Renault | 311.9 | 9.8 |
19 | 17 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams | Renault | 310.7 | 11 |
20 | 7 | Kimi Raikkonen | Lotus | Renault | 310.3 | 11.4 |
21 | 8 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus | Renault | 310.2 | 11.5 |
22 | 16 | Pastor Maldonado | Williams | Renault | 310.1 | 11.6 |
2013 Indian Grand Prix
- Vettel takes fifth Driver of the Weekend win
- This year’s Indian Grand Prix voted best so far
- F1 still struggling to gain a foothold in India
- 2013 Indian Grand Prix fans’ video gallery
- 2013 Indian Grand Prix team radio transcript
Image © Red Bull/Getty
tmax (@tmax)
25th October 2013, 15:18
@KeithCollantine Correct me if I am wrong, I think if Pirelli had chosen the tire compounds which were close to each other like Japan the race might turn out interesting with different strategies. How about Soft and Super-soft Instead of the medium ?
Chris (@tophercheese21)
25th October 2013, 15:22
Nah I think Medium was a good choice.
The soft tyre was only getting like 9-12 laps before they really dropped off in performance.
If they brought the super-soft then it would end up being like a 5-6 stop race lol.
Personally I think they should’ve gone with the medium and hard… Let em race flat out.
Patrick (@paeschli)
25th October 2013, 16:04
@tophercheese21 We will see them racing flat out at the American GP, we’ll see which of the American or Indian GP is the most interesting to watch ^^
Mike Dee (@mike-dee)
25th October 2013, 16:33
6-stop race unlikely with only 6 sets of tyres available!
@tophercheese21
@HoHum (@hohum)
25th October 2013, 22:27
Any change that stops this cursed tyre management would be an improvement.
Euro Brun (@eurobrun)
25th October 2013, 19:09
I still think there should be 3 compounds available at all events, with tyre choice free to everyone. If you want to try the whole race on a hard tyre, go for it. Or if you want 3 stops on a soft tyre, why not?
A bit more like the 80s in that respect, although the hard tyre would probably still need to be more durable than the current one, but you get my point.
DaveD (@daved)
25th October 2013, 15:31
Another Vettel snooze fest. We should just spend our time betting on the gap for the win. 20 seconds? 25? 30?
Rocky (@rocky)
25th October 2013, 16:20
I’m thinking of missing India and picking it back up after the Vettel celebrations are all over. From a sponsor point of view the The Red Bull of Vettel giet very little air time.
Dwight_js
25th October 2013, 16:32
Yea, and hardly anybody ever talks about them. It’s a real sponsor’s nightmare! :p
Meander (@meander)
25th October 2013, 15:33
Are we getting used to Grosjean as main challenger?
Dion (@infinitygc)
25th October 2013, 15:56
So it seems… Nice!
Kribana (@krichelle)
25th October 2013, 16:19
Vettel did left something eh.. I was live timing and after his second flying lap on the OPTION TYRE, he set two purple sectors, 41.8 and 22.2 respectively, only for then to pit at the end of his lap.
PeterG
25th October 2013, 16:57
Its frankly pathetic that the option tyres are once again falling to bits after only 2-5 laps, Whats the point in spending a fortune transporting hundreds of tyres across the world if there so bad drivers can’t wait to get off them.
That & the amount drivers are having to nurse the tyres this season is simply a joke.
I do not watch F1 & racing in general to see them all tootling around a couple seconds off the pace not really racing one another purely because there nursing race tyres that are as fragile as these.
And listening to the sky commentators all talking about how brillant tyres blistering after 3 laps is is equally disturbing. F1 seriously needs to look at itself & get back to allowing drivers to race before more of the top guys get bored of ‘Formula maintain the gap & hit your Lap Delta’ like Mark Webber has.
Depending on how things are next year I may be 1 fan that moves my viewership to another category because I hate how things are right now & am pessimistic about the future with the prospect of tyre & fuel saving next year :(
farmzone.net (@s2g-unit)
25th October 2013, 18:30
You forgot to add the lovely DRS passes!
lol
Yuriy
25th October 2013, 17:00
Should be very interesting battle for second place between Lotus Mercedes and Ferrari.
This is what I’m looking for this weekend.
AdrianMorse (@adrianmorse)
25th October 2013, 18:28
I think Webber should at the least lengthen his gear ratios, or even take some downforce off to be quick on the straights. It’s highly unlikely he will qualify on pole with the form Sebastian Vettel is currently in, so it looks like he will be battling with Lotus, Mercedes, and Ferrari for P2.
How often have we not seen him go down the same setup route as Sebastian Vettel only to complain that he couldn’t overtake anyone because his gears were too short? The setup works for Vettel because a) his is leading the race, and b) he can usually make passes even with a low top speed (Belgium 2012 springs to mind).
Max Jacobson (@vettel1)
25th October 2013, 23:52
@adrianmorse he showed that in Suzuka too. Coincidentally, both areas in which he overtaked in those two races were after very high speed left handers in the middle of straights approaching chicanes which bend left-right and follow onto another straight!
Euro Brun (@eurobrun)
25th October 2013, 19:04
“As the data below shows he set the quickest times in all three seconds”
I know he’s fast, but that takes the biscuit! lol.