Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel won the Indian Grand Prix yesterday and stretched his Formula One championship lead over Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, who was a battling second, to 13 points with three races remaining.
The victory from pole position was the world champion’s fourth in a row — the first time he has done that in a single season — and it maintained his dominance in India after he won last year’s inaugural race at the hazy Buddh International Circuit from pole.
The 25-year-old German now has 240 points to 227 for Alonso, who started in fifth place, and his surge toward a third title in a row is beginning to look unstoppable, despite the Spaniard’s best efforts.
His fifth win of the season was the 26th of his career.
“A very special Grand Prix. I don’t know what it is about this circuit, but I really like the flow of it,” said Vettel, who has now led every single lap for three successive races — a feat last managed by the late triple champion Ayrton Senna in 1989. “This was another good step for us, but there’s still a long way to go.”
Australian Mark Webber finished third for Red Bull, complaining of a loss of KERS boost after 45 of the 60 laps and being passed by Alonso three laps later.
“It is not easy at the moment to fight the Red Bull, but we will never give up,” the Spaniard said in a podium interview in front of the cheering crowd. “Well done to Red Bull and Sebastian, but we want to be happy and enjoy it in Brazil [the last race]. It is not only here. I am sure we will do it.”
Kimi Raikkonen hung on to third place in the overall standings with seventh place for Lotus, but he is now 67 points off the lead and just six ahead of Webber.
McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button finished fourth and fifth respectively, with the latter denying Vettel the fastest lap, but with his title hopes now mathematically over for another year.
Brazilian Felipe Massa was sixth for Ferrari, ahead of 2007 champion Raikkonen, with Germany’s Nico Hulkenberg eighth for Force India in the team’s home race.
Frenchman Romain Grosjean finished ninth for Lotus and Brazilian Bruno Senna grabbed the final point for Williams on an afternoon short on thrills for the crowd making the trip south from New Delhi.
Seven-time champion Michael Schumacher, probably the biggest Formula One name in a country more focused on cricket, collided with Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne at the start and pitted with a punctured rear right.
That sent the 43-year-old German to the back of the field on his last race appearance in India. To compound his problems, he was lapped by Vettel after eight laps and was then under investigation for ignoring blue warning flags.
To his credit, Schumacher battled on until finally retiring three laps from the end.
Mexican Sergio Perez retired in the pits after also suffering a puncture when his Sauber clipped the front of Toro Rosso’s Australian Daniel Ricciardo as they were leaving the pits together on lap 20.
“It’s been a difficult weekend. The contact with Ricciardo came and that’s it, we damaged [the] rear suspension of the car,” said Perez, who is joining McLaren next season.
India’s Narain Karthikeyan finished 21st for stragglers HRT.
OUT AGAINST INDONESIA: Taiwan reached the semi-finals at the tournament for the first time by defeating Denmark, with Chou Tien-chen beating Viktor Axelsen Taiwan yesterday crashed out of the Thomas Cup team competition in Chengdu, China, but achieved their best result at the top-tier badminton event by reaching the semi-finals. Indonesia were too good in the semis, winning 3-0 to advance to today’s final against China, who eliminated Malaysia 3-1. In the opening singles of the men’s team clash at the Hi-Tech Zone Sports Center Gymnasium 2, Anthony Ginting defeated Taiwan’s Chou Tien-chen 21-18, 21-19 in 51 minutes, which put a huge hole in Taiwan’s aspirations to perhaps even make the final. In the men’s doubles, Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Ardianto downed Lee Yang and Wang
NO DOUBT: Spurs star Wembanyama was unanimously selected as NBA Rookie of the Year, winning all 99 votes to become the first Frenchman to capture the honor The Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday night produced a dominant defensive display to seize a commanding 2-0 lead in their best-of-seven playoff series against the Denver Nuggets with a 106-80 road victory. The third-seeded Timberwolves harassed Denver relentlessly to claim a second straight win over the NBA champions as the series heads back to Minneapolis for Game 3 on Friday. Karl-Anthony Towns and Anthony Edwards scored 27 points apiece, but the star of the show was Minnesota’s suffocating defensive effort, which knocked Denver out of their stride almost from the tip-off. The Timberwolves finished with 11 steals and 12 blocks, in sharp contrast to
Top-ranked Iga Swiatek on Saturday came through “the most intense and crazy final” she has ever contested to avenge her loss to Aryna Sabalenka in last year’s Madrid Open final with a grueling three hour, 11 minute victory in the Spanish capital. Coming back from 1-3 down in the decider and saving three match points in total, Swiatek claimed a 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (9/7) victory to secure the Madrid Open trophy for the first time. “Well, who is going to say now that women’s tennis is boring, right?” Swiatek said. Swiatek, who picked up the 20th title of her career, and ninth at
Playing soccer and competing for trophies is the best way that many transplanted Hong Kongers and Macanese have found to stay in touch, and to interact with Taiwanese society, said officials at the Taiwan-Hong Kong-Macau Football Friendship Cup, which was held on April 13. Twelve clubs, mostly of players and coaches originally from Hong Kong and Macau, took part in the tournament in New Taipei City. The event is sponsored by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) and the Taiwan-Hong Kong Economic and Cultural Co-operation Council. Participating teams were from the wider Taipei area, Hsinchu, Taichung, Kaohsiung and other areas. They divided into two