Formula 1 Indian Grand Prix Reaction

What a weekend it was in India, Sebastian Vettel becomes the 2013 Formula 1 World Champion. That was really the main talking point on Sunday evening. It was an interesting race, one I thoroughly enjoyed.

Here is a selection of quotes from the drivers afterwards. I found it fascinating to hear what the drivers thought of their own race, and of course reaction to the news on the 2013 Champion.

Tom Wilkinson's Driver Reaction.

Sebastian Vettel – Red Bull – 1st
“First of all I would love to say thank you to the crowds. It was an unbelievable reception today and it's a shame we are not racing here next year. I’m speechless. I crossed the line and I was empty. I took ages to think about something to say. It’s one of these moments where you want to say so many things but you can’t. It's been such a phenomenal season. It’s a pleasure to jump in the car and go out for the guys and girls and try to give it all I have. The car was fantastic today. I didn't think about the donuts before the race today – it just happened. My engineer directed for the usual procedure, but I said 'not this time!' There are so many people in the main grandstand, I just had to do it”.

Nico Rosberg – Mercedes – 2nd
“A great job from Sebastian today and his fourth title is well deserved. For our team, it was a very important race today. We scored a lot of points and climbed back up to second place in the Constructors’ Championship. I had good pace today and we really nailed the set-up here. The team did a fantastic job on the strategy and thanks to the boys for that. The only thing which didn’t work out perfectly was when I dropped behind Felipe at the start as it was not easy to overtake him on the track, but then we managed to clear him in the pits. Our target was to be the best of the rest this weekend and it worked out perfectly.”

Romain Grosjean – Lotus – 3rd
“If you had told me yesterday that I'd be on the podium here I would have said you were crazy! Straight from the beginning of the race I felt very comfortable on the option tyres and we looked in pretty good shape, then we fitted the mediums and the car was really quick. When I saw that I was fourth in front of Massa with 27 laps to go I knew it was going to be close with him as we had to take care of the tyres, plus we had an engine issue at the end of the race which made things quite tricky. In the final laps Kimi was really struggling with his tyres so I managed to pass him and luckily had enough pace to keep Felipe behind. Before the race our best prediction was fourth if we had a strong start and a perfect race, so it was an amazing result and a great performance from the team.”

Felipe Massa – Ferrari – 4th
“That was a nice race and I am very happy, because the strategy worked. I managed to always run at a good pace, even with the Soft tyres. Here, I could have fought for the podium, but as the track evolved, some cars, such as Grosjean in the Lotus, managed to make just one stop, which was impossible for us. I lost a position to Rosberg, who came in early for his second stop, but I have to be happy with this day when we made no mistakes. I want to congratulate Sebastian, who deserves everything he has achieved so far. I am really happy for him, because he is a great driver and a very nice guy. From today, his name will sit alongside the greatest drivers in the history of Formula One, such as Senna, Schumacher and few others.”

Sergio Perez – McLaren – 5th
“Unlike the past two or three weekends, I was finally able to enjoy a clean race without any bad luck! Fifth place is a great result for me. Without question, I have a lot of pressure on my shoulders, but it's always sweeter when you perform well while under pressure. I'm extremely satisfied. In the closing laps, it was a fantastic feeling to get past Kimi and Lewis in a single move. I just braked as late as I could for turn four to try and keep Lewis behind and I managed to do it. Finally, I want to give a big congratulations to Sebastian. He's shown over the past few years that he's a truly great champion. He's had a great season and what he's achieved is incredible. Now, I really hope we can fight against him next season!”

Daniel Ricciardo – Toro Rosso – 10th
“I am pretty pleased with today's performance, even if during the race I thought we were looking better than a tenth place finish, especially after the first stint went well and the pace was looking good. It seemed as though we could have matched Sutil and Di Resta, so there's a little bit of disappointment about the fact I couldn't get past them and get a couple more points. Vettel? Phenomenal! Particularly since the summer break, when he grabbed the title and never let anyone else look at it.”

Fernando Alonso – Ferrari – 11th
“Today, the problem I had on the first lap compromised my entire race, because we had to immediately change the nose and with one extra stop, without any opportunity to overtake, it was all an uphill struggle. In front of me, Webber touched someone and then me, then at turn 4 I also touched with Button. The steering felt very heavy in right hand turns and the only thing to do was pit. I must congratulate Vettel, because in this, as in other sports, it's the best that win. I'm a bit sad at not having scored points for the Constructors' title, but now, if we want to take that second place, we have to do better in the next three races and try to always finish on the podium, at least with one car, if not both.”

Pastor Maldonado – Williams – 12th
“This was a better weekend for us, with the car showing better race pace which is encouraging. I had another strong start and made up a good number of places on the first lap. I was fighting hard at the end of the race to try and get us in to the top ten but unfortunately we didn’t quite make it today. We can take positives from this weekend and I feel we are getting closer to the points so hopefully we can score some more in the final three races.”

Jenson Button – McLaren – 14th
“Today was just one of those days- Exiting turn four on the first lap, I got hit quite hard on the right-hand-side by Fernando. I don't quite know why he couldn't make the apex, as I'd given him loads of room, but he hit me in the side pretty hard. The contact damaged the car and damaged the wheel rim, which also gave me a puncture, although it didn't cause me an issue until about three laps later. It was an extra shame that I was running on the medium compound tyre when I had the puncture, as that was the one you wanted to run long around here! So that incident destroyed my strategy for the rest of the afternoon. Congratulations to Seb for winning his fourth world championship. That's very impressive – especially to win four in a row. His team did a great job, Adrian Newey demonstrated how good he is, and Seb finished it off nicely with a win.”

Max Chilton – Marussia – 17th
“I'm so happy with my performance in that race. The start was great and with the help of my engineers we did a good job of driving around a problem that at one stage had looked like it might end in retirement. Thankfully it eased and we could set about recovering our strategy, which in the end played out very nicely for me. From the video, the circumstances of the first corner seem pretty clear – I was ahead of Van der Garde and he hit both Pic and myself with his front wing. When I looked in my mirrors I could see he had damaged his wing. I'm obviously very happy to maintain my record of finishing every race but it will be an even nicer feeling if I can still be saying that in Brazil! My thanks to the team for all the hard work, which is clearly paying off. Finally, congratulations to Sebastian on a well-deserved fourth title.”

Mark Webber – Red Bull – DNF
“I'm pretty disappointed with today's race, but there is not much I can do, the alternator went wrong with very short notice so we had to stop straight away. It’s tough because we did a lot of things right this weekend, but I’ve got a smile on my face as I could not have done any more. Well done to Seb on his Championship and also to all the Team' to get a fourth title is amazing. It's been a great job by the whole team to achieve the title four years on the trot and it has once again set itself as the benchmark for the others.”

Formula 1 online at Driving For Pleasure
Sebastian Vettel became the youngest ever four times Formula 1 World Champion in India, everybody in the paddock congratulated his extraordinary achievement. Now however the focus switches to Abu Dhabi this weekend, can anybody stop this 26 year old? As always I will be covering the Grand Prix weekend online at
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