Sebastian Vettel roared into history as Formula 1’s youngest four-time champion in emphatic style as he dominated the Indian Grand Prix earlier this week.
Starting from pole position, Vettel pitted early to change his soft tyres, then blitzed through the field to win 30 seconds ahead of Mercedes’s Nico Rosberg, with Lotus driver Romain Grosjean third. Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, who was Vettel’s nearest challenger going into the race 90 points adrift, only managed to finish in 11th place. Australian Mark Webber dropped out of the race due to gearbox problems on the 40th lap.
The 26-year-old German, Vettel becomes the youngest man to win four consecutive world titles, with Juan Manuel Fangio and Michael Schumacher the only other drivers to achieve that record.
It was Vettel’s sixth win in a row, 10th in 16 races this season and the 36th of his career and has left him poised to take more records in the remaining three races in Abu Dhabi, America and Brazil. If he wins all three, Vettel will equal Schumacher’s record of 13 wins in 2004 and become the only driver to score nine consecutive victories in a season. Italian driver Alberto Ascari drove a Ferrari for nine straight wins, but his run was spread over two seasons in 1952 and 1953.