All you needed to know about the Indian Grand Prix

A ready reckoner ahead of Sunday’s Indian Grand Prix at the Buddh International Circuit near New Delhi.

Lap distance: 5.125km (race distance 307.249km, 60 laps)
Race lap record: One minute 27.249 seconds ( Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull, 2011)
Start time: 0830 (1500 local)
2011 pole: Vettel 1:24.178
2011 winner: Vettel

WINS
Vettel is the only driver to have won four races this season. Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso and McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton have both won three. Red Bull’s Mark Webber and McLaren’s Jenson Button have won twice.

The championship started with an unprecedented run of seven different winners in the first seven races (Button/Alonso/Nico Rosberg/Vettel/Pastor Maldonado/Webber/Hamilton).

Ferrari have won 219 races since the championship started in 1950, McLaren 180, Williams 114 and Red Bull 33.

Seven-times champion Michael Schumacher holds the record for driver victories with 91. Alonso has 30, Vettel 25, Hamilton 20, Raikkonen 18.

File picture of Red Bull Formula One driver Vettel drives during the Indian first F1 Grand Prix. Reuters

One more win would lift Alonso level with Britain’s 1992 champion Nigel Mansell as fourth equal in the all-time list. Vettel’s win in South Korea lifted him level with Niki Lauda and Jim Clark.

Raikkonen’s last win was in Belgium with Ferrari in 2009. Schumacher’s last win was in China with Ferrari in 2006.

Vettel is chasing his fourth win in a row after victories in South Korea, Japan and Singapore. The German has never before chalked up four successive victories in a single season but he won in India last year.

POLE
Vettel took 15 pole positions in 2011, the most anyone has achieved in a single season, but has been on pole only four times this year. Red Bull took a record 18 poles last year.

Vettel has 34 poles to his credit. Only Schumacher (68) and the late Ayrton Senna (65) managed more. Hamilton has 24 and Alonso 22.

Nine of 16 races this year have been won from pole. – POINTS Caterham (formerly Team Lotus and Lotus Racing), Marussia (Previously Virgin Racing) and HRT have yet to score a point in nearly three seasons of competing.

FASTEST LAPS
South Korea saw Red Bull’s Mark Webber become the 11th different driver to have set the fastest race lap this season in 16 grands prix.

INDIA
Narain Karthikeyan is the only Indian driver to have scored points in Formula One, finishing fourth for Jordan in a six-car 2005 US Grand Prix. He will also be the only Indian in Sunday’s race, competing for HRT.

Force India are the first and only Indian-owned team but have never had an Indian driver.

Sauber team principal Monisha Kaltenborn was born in the Indian city of Dehradun and lived in the country until she was eight years old.

The safety car was not deployed in India last year. The circuit has 16 corners (nine of them right-handers) and cars hit a maximum speed without using DRS of 315kph. Average lap speed last year was around 206kph. The 1.12km straight is one of the longest on the calendar. Pirelli are bringing their hard and soft tyres, the same choice as last year although the compounds are now softer. A two-stop strategy is most likely, although a one-stop is certainly possible.