Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel of Germany drove away smiling on his victory lap on Sunday after winning the inaugural Indian Formula One Grand Prix race at the new Buddh International Circuit in Noida, outside Delhi.

"Yes, we did it," Vettel shouted over the team radio as he finished. "The first Indian Grand Prix. Fantastic challenge, we did it!"

Vettel made no mistakes from his pole position, finishing more than eight seconds ahead of Jenson Button, with Ferrari's Fernando Alonso third and Australian Mark Webber in fourth.

The defending and reigning champion

The victory was Vettel's 11th in 17 races this season, putting him within reach of equalizing fellow German Michael Schumacher's 2004 record of 13 wins in one year. There are still two races left.

Vettel is also just one race away from equalizing Nigel Mansell's record of 14 pole positions in one season; just another feat which seems so normal for him after already wrapping up this year's title.

The German had no problems winning a furious start, which saw Button nip past Webber and Alonso to go from fourth on the grid to second, cueing up an early dogfight with the leader of the pack.

As they dueled, Vettel opened up a lead of nearly five seconds and after the first set of stops, the young German emerged from the pit lane still at the head of the field, where he stayed until the finish.

Author: Gregg Benzow (dpa, AFP, Reuters)
Editor: Andreas Illmer