Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull Racing celebrates on the podium after winning the Indian Formula One Grand Prix at Buddh International Circuit. (Paul Gilham/Getty Images)

Red Bull Racing’s Sebastian Vettel started from the pole and led every lap in winning the 2012 Formula One Indian Grand Prix at New Delhi’s Buddh circuit Sunday, further tightening his grip on his third consecutive World Drivers’ Championship.

Vettel completely controlled the race, gaining a lap a second for the first dozen laps and getting more performance out of his ragged 33-lpa-old starting tires than some drivers could get out of fresh rubber. The 25-year-old ubermensch has now led every lap of the last three Grands Prix and with three races to go has a 13-point lead over Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, the only driver with even a hope of catching him—a very slim hope.

In the post-race interview on Speed-TV Vettel pointed out that he only succeeded because his team was successful.

“Big thanks to the team—every single one is pushing very hard and I think there’s not one thing that stands out and makes the difference: not today, not yesterday; not this weekend. I think it’s all of us working hand-in-hand together.”

Red Bull had the quickest pit stop—an unbelievable 2.6 seconds, the quickest car, and the quickest driver. Had Mark Webber’s KERS not failed in the closing laps Red Bull would have had another 1–2 finish.

Despite a shaky middle of the season, the team is once again proving it is not the team to beat in F1—it is the team which can’t be beat.

Gone From the Start

The Red Bull driver made his usual excellent start, veering right to squeeze team mate Mark Webber a bit before leading into the first turn. McLaren’s Jenson Button also made a tremendous start from fourth, passing his teammate Lewis Hamilton who started third.

The best launch came from Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, who started fifth but bypassed both McLaren’s into Turn Three. Button was able to retake third from the Ferrari driver, But Alonso took it back a few laps later. By this point Vettel had a 2.2 second lead on the field and was already checking out.

Hamilton got past Button also, and this order head for the next couple dozen laps.

All the leaders were on soft tires, which weren’t expected to last two dozen laps; Jenson Button complained of shuddering from his tiers on lap 21. The McLaren driver, usually very goods d with tires, pitted for hards on lap 25, but the rest of the leaders refused to come in before the others.

Vettel was setting fastest laps on his tired softs while Alonso, Webber, and finally Hamilton had to pit. When the Red Bull driver pitted on lap 33, he had a 28-second lead on the field. He easily rejoined in first after that incredible 2.6-second stop.

Vettel opened about a ten-second gap after rejoining and maintained it, with Webber behind him unitl lap 45 when the Kiwi’s Kinetic Energy Recovery System failed. Without the extra burst of power form KERS, Webber was easy meat for Alonso, who took over second place on lap 48.

Despite his best efforts the Ferrari pilot couldn’t cut into Vettel’s lead. Second-place points were far better than a DNF for Alonso, but it was obvious that the new, improved Ferrrari was still no match for the Red Bull.

Alonso was philosophical about the loss; he knew he didn’t have the car at India, and that the only result that would really matter would be the final points tally after the season finale at Brazil.

“It’s not easy at the moment to fight with Red Bull but we will never give up,” he told the post-race oppress conference on Formula1.com. “I think we are happy today, we have to congratulate them, they were fantastic this weekend so well done Red Bull, well done Sebastian -- but yeah, we want to be happy and we want to enjoy Brazil, not only here so I’m sure we will do it.

“We lost points but I think this was more or less the plan this weekend: we were not fast enough to compete against them, so we lost the minimum points, which is finishing second, so a s I said, better races will come.”

McLaren took fourth and fifth, a respectable showing, and possibly good enough to keep the team in the top three of the constructors’ championship.

“I don’t yet understand why I got such a poor start—it lost me ground and then I fell under attack from the guys behind,” Hamilton explained in a McLaren press release. “During the first lap, I was primarily focusing on not colliding with Jenson; then I saw Fernando [Alonso] in my right mirror. He was towing me from very far back. Even if I’d had a better start than I did, the guys in front were still maybe a bit too fast, particularly in the first stint.

The McLaren pit crew, which cost Lewis Hamilton some probable race wins with pit stop errors early in the season, completely redeemed itself with a 3.3-second stop which included changing the steering wheel.

“During that first stint I started having a downshift problem—I was having to change down with my right hand instead of my left, so the team elected to change the steering wheel at the pit stop,” he contuinued.

“I’ve never had to change a steering wheel during a race before. We’ve done it in Barcelona testing before, but never in a race. Even so, the guys did it fantastically quickly, under immense pressure, so I want to say ‘well done!’ to them all. I took the wheel off before I’d even stopped the car, and threw it out of the car. The team then fitted a new one, I clicked it into first gear, and I was away—all in just a bit over three seconds flat.

“I tried to chase down Mark [Webber] in the closing laps, but by then it was too late and he was going too quickly for me to be able to mount a serious challenge. But I never give up, and, right until the very last corner, I thought I might just be able to catch him, but in the end it wasn’t to be.

“Still, I loved it out there today – I can’t remember the last time I’ve pushed so far, so hard, for so long, right on the limit—it felt great. It felt fantastic, in fact, to be in the middle of such a battle.”

Formula One heads to Abu Dhabi’s Yas Marina circuit next weekend for its next race. Practice for the 2012 Formula One Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix starts on November second with the race on November 4. Tickets and travel packages are available through the Formula 1 website.