Sebastian Vettel sailed to his 11th victory of the 2011 season after winning the very first Indian Grand Prix comfortably ahead of McLaren’s Jenson Button.
The German led every single lap to surpass Nigel Mansell’s 1992 record of 962 lead laps in a single season.
Button had no answer for the Red Bull but managed to come in just eight seconds behind after jumping Mark Webber, who finished fourth behind Fernando Alonso, at the start.
Michael Schumacher topped off the top five with his teammate a second behind.
Lewis Hamilton had a coming together with Felipe Massa on lap 24 which cost him places. The Brazilian was penalised for the incident and later retired after hitting the orange kerbs, as he did during qualifying.
McLaren also took the runner-up position in the constructors’ championship.
For a full race report, check out our live text commentary here.
Indian GP Results:
| Pos | Driver | Team | Gap | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01. | S. Vettel | Red Bull | 25 | |
| 02. | J. Button | McLaren | +8.4 | 18 |
| 03. | F. Alonso | Ferrari | +24.3 | 15 |
| 04. | M. Webber | Red Bull | +25.5 | 12 |
| 05. | M. Schumacher | Mercedes | +1:05.4 | 10 |
| 06. | N. Rosberg | Mercedes | +1:06.8 | 8 |
| 07. | L. Hamilton | McLaren | +1:24.1 | 6 |
| 08. | J. Alguersuari | Toro Rosso | +1 lap | 4 |
| 09. | A. Sutil | Force India | +1 lap | 2 |
| 10. | S. Perez | Sauber | +1 lap | 1 |
| 11. | V. Petrov | Renault | +1 lap | |
| 12. | B. Senna | Renault | +1 lap | |
| 13. | P. di Resta | Force India | +1 lap | |
| 14. | H. Kovalainen | Team Lotus | +2 laps | |
| 15. | R. Barrichello | Williams | +2 laps | |
| 16. | J. d’Ambrosio | Virgin | +3 laps | |
| 17. | N. Karthikeyan | HRT | +3 laps | |
| 18. | D. Ricciardo | HRT | +3 laps | |
| 19. | J. Trulli | Team Lotus | +5 laps | |
| 20. | F. Massa | Ferrari | Retired | |
| 21. | S. Buemi | Toro Rosso | Retired | |
| 22. | P. Maldonado | Williams | Retired | |
| 23. | T. Glock | Virgin | Retired | |
| 24. | K. Kobayashi | Sauber | Retired |
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