Red Bull Motor Sports Racing

Sebastian Vettel clinched his third successive drivers' championship after an utterly absorbing final race in Brazil, his sixth-place finish enough to prevent Fernando Alonso, who came home second behind Jenson Button, from overhauling him. In a superb afternoon where fortunes ebbed and flowed on almost every lap, Vettel's hopes appeared to be dashed within seconds of the start when he collided with Bruno Senna, spun and was left at the back of the field.
But he battled through, never getting ahead of Alonso but always close enough that the 13-point cushion he brought to Interlagos was going to be sufficient. Button's win on an increasingly wet afternoon was handed to him when Lewis Hamilton, who had appeared set to leave McLaren with back-to-back victories, was taken out 16 laps from the end by Nico Hulkenberg as the Force India driver tried to regain a lead he had held for a large chunk of the race.
Felipe Massa was third having allowed his team-mate through in to second place late in the race but second proved one place too low for Alonso who lost out to Vettel by three points. Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber came home fourth ahead of the recovering Hulkenberg, with Vettel a distant sixth ahead of the retiring Michael Schumacher, Jean-Eric Vergne, Kamui Kobayashi and Kimi Raikkonen.
The race ended behind a safety car as Paul di Resta crashed heavily on the run towards the finish line on the penultimate lap, with some standing water catching him out on intermediate tyres. Significant racing had gone on throughout the field and di Resta's retirement meant Vitaly Petrov came home 11th ahead of Charles Pic, allowing Caterham to snatch back 10th in the constructors' championship.
The start of the race was hugely dramatic as Vettel got a poor start and dropped to seventh off the line, and was then collected at turn four as he turned in on Senna. Kimi Raikkonen had almost run in to the rear of Vettel under braking but after being tapped in to a spin Vettel was hit again by the Williams and was lucky not to sustain race-ending damage.


The spin left Vettel at the back of the field with damaged rear bodywork and a dented exhaust, but he soon started carving his way through as the drivers tried to judge their pace on slick tyres with drizzle falling. Alonso had made a good start to fifth place behind his team-mate and Webber, but dived around the inside of both drivers to take third at the start of the second lap and at that time was in position to take the title.


Hulkenberg made good progress up to fourth place as the rain made conditions very tricky - with Romain Grosjean spearing off in to the wall at Murgulho - and then Vettel's cause wasn't helped by Webber dropping to the back of the field having been tipped in to a spin by Kobayashi.
Hamilton had led from pole but Button seemed more comfortable in the conditions and took the lead on lap eight, with Hulkenberg having already cleared Alonso and shadowing both McLarens. Webber was the first man on to intermediate tyres on lap 10 and the rest of the field soon followed with only Button and Hulkenberg staying on slicks. It was a move that paid off as the two stayed over 20 seconds clear of the field, and Hulkenberg took advantage of a twitch from Button towards turn one to take the lead after 19 laps. At the same time as the lead changed hands drivers were switching back to slick tyres, with Rosberg soon picking up a puncture as more and more debris built-up on the track.

The safety car was deployed, giving Button and Hulkenberg the chance to pit but also erasing their comfortable lead. On the restart, Hulkenberg pulled away but Vettel - having recovered to fifth - dropped to sixth behind Kobayashi as Webber attacked his team-mate around the outside. Vettel lost another place as Massa came through and having dropped to seventh the damage on his car meant he was unable to make progress as the track dried again. Hamilton had passed Button in to turn four soon after the restart and then closed on Hulkenberg, and benefited from a mistake from the leader on lap 48 as Hulkenberg spun at Laranja.
The rain continued to be intermittent and another sprinkling saw the front two close together again, with Hulkenberg trying to dive up the inside of Hamilton in to turn one and sliding in to the McLaren to take him out of his final race with the team. Hulkenberg was handed a drive through penalty for the incident which dropped him to fifth behind Button, Massa, Alonso and Webber as the rain intensified, to such an extent that Raikkonen ran wide at Juncao, took to the old circuit behind the barrier to try and recover but found a gate blocking his path and he had to turn his Lotus round to retrace his steps to rejoin.
Everyone pit for intermediates and Vettel had enough pace to pass Schumacher for sixth, meaning Alonso needed victory.
While Massa allowed Alonso through in to second place he was 20 seconds behind Button and could make no impression on the leader.


The late safety car ensured the field finished the race in a line but ultimately it was Vettel who had done just enough to win a third consecutive world championship and join an elite group of Schumacher, Juan Manuel Fangio, Alain Prost, Jack Brabham, Jackie Stewart, Niki Lauda, Nelson Piquet and Ayrton Senna as triple world champion.
Content credits: ESPNF1 ~ Chris Medland

Red Bull F1 pilot Sebastian Vettel leads from start to finish to extend his lead in the title race to 13 points with Fernando Alonso second and Mark Webber third.
Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel had a lonely race from pole to the chequered flag at the Indian Grand Prix as the German took another step towards a Formula One title hat-trick. Vettel got his fourth victory in a row, a first for him, ahead of title rival Fernando Alonso of Ferrari and Mark Webber of Red Bull, who had to relinquish second place late in the race with problems with the Kers power boost system.
Alonso led Vettel by 39 points but the German turned the deficit into a 13—point lead into the final three races with victories in Singapore, Japan, South Korea and India.
Vettel has 240 points to Alonso’s 227, with Kimi Raikkonen of Lotus (173) and Webber (167) with only a mathematical chance. McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton (165) and Jenson Button (141) are now officially out of the title race after coming fourth and fifth, respectively.

Sebastian Vettel powers to pole position India GP. Sebastian Vettel continued his dominance of the Indian Grand Prix weekend by securing the 35th pole position of his Formula One career. After winning the last three races to take up the lead in the world title battle, Vettel is on course to extend that advantage should he score a second successive victory at the Buddh International Circuit.
The 24-year-old German, quickest in all three practice sessions, edged out Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber by just 0.044 seconds, nailing his second flying lap in the top-10 shoot-out after making an error on his first run.
It is the first time in Red Bull's history they have managed to lock out the front row of the grid for three consecutive races.
Behind the Red Bulls will be the McLarens of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button, the former a quarter of a second behind Vettel.
For Fernando Alonso, trailing Vettel by six points in the standings, the Spaniard will have to fight his way through as he starts fifth in his Ferrari followed by team-mate Felipe Massa.
Lotus' Kimi Raikkonen, still in with an outside chance of the title, lines up seventh in his Lotus, with Sauber's Sergio Perez a superb eighth.
Pastor Maldonado, who was fastest at the end of the first session in his Williams, starts ninth, with Nico Rosberg 10th for Mercedes.



A slight mistake in Q2 cost Romain Grosjean dear as the Frenchman missed out on a place in the top 10 by 0.025secs to Massa.
The Lotus driver will start 11th ahead of Nico Hulkenberg in his Force India, with team-mate Paul Di Resta a lowly 16th, his worst grid slot since last year's Belgian Grand Prix.
In between the duo are Williams' Bruno Senna, Michael Schumacher in his Mercedes and Toro Rosso's Daniel Ricciardo, whilst Sauber driver Kamui Kobayashi finished a staggering 1.2secs down on team-mate Perez and starts 17th.
Positions after qualifying:
1 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull 1min 25.283secs
2 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull 1:25.327
3 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) McLaren 1:25.544
4 Jenson Button (Gbr) McLaren 1:25.659
5 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari 1:25.773
6 Felipe Massa (Bra) Ferrari 1:25.857
7 Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Lotus F1 Team 1:26.236
8 Sergio Perez (Mex) Sauber-Ferrari 1:26.360
9 Pastor Maldonado (Ven) Williams 1:26.713
10 Nico Rosberg (Ger) Mercedes GP No Time
11 Romain Grosjean (Fra) Lotus F1 Team 1:26.136
12 Nico Hulkenberg (Ger) Force India 1:26.241
13 Bruno Senna (Bra) Williams 1:26.331
14 Michael Schumacher (Ger) Mercedes GP 1:26.574
15 Daniel Ricciardo (Aus) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:26.777
16 Paul di Resta (Gbr) Force India 1:26.989
17 Kamui Kobayashi (Jpn) Sauber-Ferrari 1:27.219
18 Jean-Eric Vergne (Fra) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:27.525
19 Vitaly Petrov (Rus) Caterham 1:28.756
20 Heikki Kovalainen (Fin) Caterham 1:29.500
21 Timo Glock (Ger) Marussia 1:29.613
22 Pedro de la Rosa (Spa) HRT-F1 1:30.592
23 Narain Karthikeyan (Ind) HRT-F1 1:30.593
24 Charles Pic (Fra) Marussia 1:30.662

Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel closes in on championship leader Fernando Alonso after victory at Suzuka. Sebastian Vettel gave his hopes of claiming a third-consecutive world title a huge boost as he took advantage of Fernando Alonso's first-lap retirement with a consummate Japanese Grand Prix victory at Suzuka.
Vettel cruised to his third victory of the season, and second in a row, to move him to within four points of Alonso at the top of the drivers' championship, after the Spaniard dramatically crashed out at the first corner after contact with Kimi Raikkonen.
Ferrari's Felipe Massa took second ahead of Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi. It was Massa's first podium of the year and may well have secured his future at Ferrari, while
Behind Massa, Kobayashi held off a determined challenge from Button, who was battling with a gearbox that was intermittently slipping into neutral.
Red Bull's Mark Webber fought up from the back of the field after being hit from behind at the first corner to take ninth ahead of Daniel Ricciardo, who held off Michael Schumacher's Mercedes in the last few laps.
For Vettel, it was one the most comfortable victories of the year. He converted pole position into a lead at the first corner and streaked away into a race of his own.
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Sebastian Vettel described his victory in the Indian Grand Prix as a "fantastic performance" and a "very smooth race". Vettel led every lap of the race and set the fastest lap on his way to victory to complete a perfect weekend having qualified on pole position. With Jenson Button never able to close within less than 2.5 seconds Vettel never looked seriously troubled, and he admitted that the only slight concern he had during the grand prix was the amount by which his lead was cut around the pit stops. "It's obviously a very good race for us," Vettel said.
"I enjoyed the time in the lead very much, obviously they had a little bit of a fight with Jenson in the distance who was always about four seconds (back). Strangely he kept closing in around the pit stops. I don't know why, I was pushing very hard in to the box and out of the box, but we seemed to lose a little bit there so we need to understand.

"But on circuit it was obviously crucial to manage the tyres, make sure that you have enough of them at the end.
So all in all it was a very smooth race, the car was very well balanced; I felt even a little bit more confident on the hard tyres on the end. But overall a fantastic performance." Vettel also said that he was struggling to enjoy the victory as much as usual in the wake of the recent accidents that claimed the lives of Dan Wheldon and Marco Simoncelli. "To be honest with you it's a little bit mixed emotions. On the one hand I'm very happy, it's the first grand prix in India and I'm very proud to be the first winner, and I think we can be as a team. But on the other hand, looking back at last weekend we lost two of our mates. I didn't know Dan Wheldon but obviously he was a big name in motorsport. I got to know Marco Simoncelli this year, and obviously our thoughts are with them.
Yes we are ready to take certain risks when we jump in to the car but we obviously pray that every time nothing happens, but sometimes we get reminded and it's the last thing that we want to see."

After becoming a double world champion at the Japanese Grand Prix, Sebastian Vettel insisted there is no secret to Red Bull's success, just a very good team. Vettel finished third at Suzuka to ensure he took his second title with four races remaining. After a dominant year for Red Bull, in which Vettel took 12 pole positions and nine victories, he gave full credit to his team. "There is no secret, it's step-by-step," Vettel said. "I think in a way the hardest thing, after winning the title last year when it was so close and so exciting, was to go out and do it again, and even though you know how to do, it doesn't allow you to make all these little steps. I could not have got close to this alone, so I needed all the support I could get, from the team, from Mark [Webber] and from everyone outside the team working for me.



It's as confusing as the first one I have to say. So it's hard to find the right words." He said taking the title at Suzuka, the scene of several championship deciders down the years, was also very special. "It's phenomenal, especially next to the strong result again today," he added. "To win the championship here is just fantastic. There are lots of things that you want to say but you can't remember all of them. I'm just so, so thankful to everyone in the team. We've got so many people here at the track, but also in Milton Keynes working day-in-day out every day, pushing hard to build those to cars to fight for the points and also fight for the championship. We find ourselves in a very, very strong position and it's great to achieve the results we set for ourselves going into this year already."


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The defending World Champion started Sunday's race at the Hungaroring in pole position but he slipped to P2 behind Lewis Hamilton as he struggled on the wet track. Things didn't get much better after the second round of pit stops as he dropped to fourth behind the two McLarens and his team-mate Mark Webber.
However, the move to put him on super soft tires for his last stint, as well as the decision not to bring him in for a change to intermediate tires, paid off for the German and he was able to move up to P2.

"I was struggling a bit in the first stint with the intermediate tires, Lewis (Hamilton) was a bit faster, then I lost it down into Turn 2," Vettel said after the race. "I lost the lead and obviously the circuit was drying, so we maybe could have come in a lap earlier.

"On the super soft tire I was feeling quite good initially but there was quite a lot of drop off, I think it was the same for all of us with the track being quite green. I think both times I would love to have pitted one lap earlier, although it was quite fun to see the McLaren's very close again. But then in the last stint, I had to let Jenson go."


Vettel finished just 3.50 seconds behind Button in the end, but he says he couldn't push any harder as he had a problem with his brakes.

"I felt that I had a bit more speed in the car but I had a couple of problems with the brakes and it was difficult to know how the car would be at the end. I couldn't push as hard as I would like to, second today is an important step, but I think the win was within reach today and we didn't get it.


"We need to work hard because both of the McLarens are very, very strong in all sorts of conditions, so it's clear now for a couple of races that they have done a step forward. We need to make sure that we come back, definitely."
Credits: f1 Planet

Sebastian Vettel triumphs after Monaco Grand Prix drama. Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel won his first Monaco Grand Prix and pulled further ahead in the championship. Ferrari's Fernando Alonso and McLaren's Jenson Button, who briefly led the race, had closed in on Vettel but a late safety car helped the German.
Alonso finished second for the first time in 2011, with Button third and Red Bull's Mark Webber fourth.
Vettel had taken his first pole in Monte Carlo during a qualifying session which had been overshadowed by Sergio Perez's heavy crash which kept him out of the race.
Button, who started alongside Vettel on the front row, tried to play a decisive card in the race when he triggered the pit stops on lap 15.
Vettel had no choice but to respond and came in for his first stop on the following lap, but his crew of mechanics in the Red Bull garage did not have the tyres ready. The resulting delay saw Vettel return to the track in second place.


With a clear track ahead of him, Button quickly built a lead over the world champion. But while a clever strategy call helped McLaren and Hamilton win in China, this time their attempt to out-think Red Bull backfired.

Button was on a three-stop strategy and when he came in for a second time Vettel regained the lead, and Button dropped to third after his final stop. The Englishman refused to blame his team's strategy for failing to deliver him his first win of the season.

"We had to take the risk and go for more stops so we shouldn't be upset with what we did," said Button. "The team did a great job this weekend and I was happy with our strategy. We had to try to do something different to beat Vettel, it was working but it didn't work in the end."

Alonso had muscled his way past Webber and up to third with a typically aggressive start and the Spaniard gained another place thanks to a two-stop strategy.

Vettel looked in real danger as his one-stop strategy meant he had to nurse his tires for more than 60 laps. But the restart after the second safety car meant the three leading cars were able to change their tyres and Vettel comfortably cruised to the line.

Alonso said: "Seven days ago we were two minutes behind the leaders and now we are fighting for victory. "The car is identical to Barcelona so [this result] is just related to Monaco's unique circuit.

"It is also true that the car is working well on the supersoft tyres. They will be available for the next two races so hopefully we can repeat this performance."

Hamilton had a rollercoaster of an afternoon and was constantly in the thick of the action. After a tussle with Michael Schumacher's Mercedes, Hamilton received a drive-through penalty after he bumped Massa in a three-way battle with Webber at the hairpin.



To the end of the Grand Prix the reappearance of the safety car released the pressure on Vettel, and when the race resumed 20 minutes later with the three leaders all having changed their tyres, Vettel comfortably held off Alonso and Button to add the Monaco title to his growing collection.

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said it had been particularly pleasing to win after the team had experienced a series of unexpected problems during the race.
"We had problems at Sebastian's first stop, we had radio issues and didn't get the tyres on that we wanted, so we had to change our strategy," said Horner.

"The main thing was that we didn't panic. We tried something a bit different, which was very aggressive, but Seb was making it work - that was what won him the race today."He was pretty confident, kept talking to his engineers, focusing on areas he could be quick."

Content credits: BBC F1

Alonso wins, Vettel 4th place. Red Bull conjured a magnificent strategy for Sebastian Vettel as he pitted at the end of the penultimate lap after having opened up a 22-second gap on fifth-placed Nico Rosberg in his Mercedes. It was enough of an advantage for him to retain fourth spot, making amends in part for his indiscretions in the last two grands prix in Hungary and Belgium.
It also seemed like being a bad day earlier in the race for Sebastian Vettel as a brake problem momentarily dropped him behind Red Bull team mate Webber, from fifth to sixth. But a very clever bit of strategy from the Milton Keynes team saw them keep their man out until the 52nd lap before he finally made his mandatory tire stop.

Webber now leads the world championship again with 187 points to Hamilton’s 182, but Alonso’s great drive vaults him to third on 166, just ahead of Button on 165 and Vettel on 163. Red Bull have 350 points to McLaren’s 347 and Ferrari’s 290.

It was a tense rather than thrilling race, but the scrap for the lower points places was always entertaining. Hulkenberg chased fifth-placed Robert Kubica for much of the race and jumped the Renault in the pit stops, but the Williams driver dropped back to seventh after Webber’s successful attack. Kubica took eighth, with Mercedes GP’s Michael Schumacher a distant ninth ahead of Rubens Barrichello in the second Williams.


1. Fernando Alonso (Spain) Ferrari 1hr 16mins 24.572secs
2. Jenson Button (Britain) McLaren +00:02.938
3. Felipe Massa (Brazil) Ferrari 00:04.223
4. Sebastian Vettel (Germany) RedBull - Renault 00:28.196
5. Nico Rosberg (Germany) Mercedes 00:29.942
6. Mark Webber (Australia) RedBull - Renault 00:31.276
7. Nico Huelkenberg (Germany) Williams - Cosworth 00:32.812
8. Robert Kubica (Poland) Renault 00:34.028
# 9. Michael Schumacher (Germany) Mercedes 00:44.948
# 10. Rubens Barrichello (Brazil) Williams - Cosworth 01:04.213
# 11. Sebastien Buemi (Switzerland) Toro Rosso-Ferrari 01:05.056
# 12. Vitantonio Liuzzi (Italy) Force India-Mercedes 01:06.106
# 13. Vitaly Petrov (Russia) Renault 01:18.919
# 14. Pedro de la Rosa (Spain) BMW Sauber - Ferrari 1 lap
# 15. Jaime Alguersuari (Spain) Toro Rosso - Ferrari 1 lap
# 16. Adrian Sutil (Germany) Force India - Mercedes 1 lap
# 17. Timo Glock (Germany) Virgin - Cosworth 2 laps
# 18. Heikki Kovalainen (Finland) Lotus - Cosworth 2 laps
# 19. Sakon Yamamoto (Japan) HRT - Cosworth 2 laps
# 20. Lucas Di Grassi (Brazil) Virgin - Cosworth 3 laps

Vettel takes pole for dominant Red Bull at Silverstone. Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber locked out the front row of the grid for the British Grand Prix, after a dominant display in qualifying by Red Bull.

The RB6 was in league of its own around the high-speed Silvertsone circuit, with Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton the only other two drivers capable of getting within a second of Vettel. The Red Bull duo scrapped for pole position in Q3, but Webber wasn't able to match his team-mate in the new middle sector and will have to challenge him off the start line tomorrow if he wants to stand a chance of taking victory under normal conditions.

Behind Hamilton in fourth, Nico Rosberg restored some pride for the struggling Mercedes team, ahead of Robert Kubica's Renault and Felipe Massa's Ferrari. Rubens Barrichello and Pedro de la Rosa impressed for their respective teams in eighth and ninth and Michael Schumacher rounded out the top ten in the second Mercedes.

It was a disastrous session for Jenson Button, who qualified 14th and complained of a lack of rear-end grip. He said "something felt very wrong" and admitted that he had to take downforce away from the front wing ahead of the session just to balance the car in the corners.

Button is joined outside the top ten by the two Force Indias of Adrian Sutil and Tonio Liuzzi. Sutil had shown promise in Q1 but couldn't hook up a lap when it mattered, while Liuzzi came perilously close to dropping out in the first session. Sutil will start 11th ahead of Kamui Kobayashi and Nico Hulkenberg, with Liuzzi back in 15th ahead of Vitaly Petrov and Sebastien Buemi.

Jaime Alguersuari joined the bottom six cars at the back of the grid after failing to make the grade for Q2. Lotus' Heikki Kovalainen leads the battle of the new teams, ahead of Timo Glock in the Virgin. Sakon Yamamoto stepped up his game slightly for qualifying to set a lap within half a second of Karun Chandhok, after being a full second adrift in the practice sessions.

Credits: ESPN F1