Sunday Territorian

Ruthless Vettel zeroing in on fourth straight

-

SEBASTIAN Vettel looks odds- on to win his fourth straight world title as he snared pole position for the Indian Grand Prix with apparent ease yesterday.

Vettel, needing only to finish fifth on Sunday to seal another championsh­ip, burned an record lap of 1 min 24.119 sec on his first run of the final qualifying shoot-out.

The Red Bull ace, 26, then garaged before returning to the track late in the session, but it proved unnecessar­y with none of the field able to come close.

Nico Rosberg went second in the final minutes, a yawn- ing 0.75 sec adrift, with his Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton third and Australian Mark Webber fourth in the other Red Bull.

Fernando Alonso, who has a mathematic­al chance of denying Vettel the title, will start from the fourth row after timing eighth quickest.

Webber’s fellow Australian Daniel Ricciardo, in his Toro Rosso, will start on the sixth row after qualifying 11th.

‘‘Yes guys,’’ Vettel shouted on the team radio. ‘‘We did what we had to. Great job, the car was fantastic.’’

Vettel’s seventh pole position this season comes as he seeks to extend his careerhigh winning streak of five races in what has turned into another season of dominance.

If he lifts the world title this year, he will be the youngest man to win four in a row and only the third-ever behind legends Juan Manuel Fangio and Michael Schumacher.

Vettel leads the standings by 90 points from Alonso.

He will only let the title slip if he fails to score another point and Alonso wins three of the last four races and is second in the other.

He also has a chance of equalling Schumacher’s 2004 record of 13 wins in a season.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Australia