Indian Grand Prix Result: Four in a row puts Seb in title control

Vettel wins back-to-back Indian Grands Prix

James Frankland reviews the Indian Grand Prix after another lights to flag victory for Sebastian Vettel

Sebastian Vettel extended his Driver's Championship lead to 13 points after a crushing display in the Indian Grand Prix, the Red Bull driver winning his fourth consecutive race to put him firmly in control of this year's title fight.

Fernando Alonso was able to minimise the damage to his own title aspirations by battling through to finish second, taking advantage of a loss of KERS for Vettel's teammate Mark Webber, who in the end only just managed to hold onto thirdplace ahead of a charging Lewis Hamilton.

With three races to go, Vettel's lead is slim but crucial. The forthcoming races in Abu Dhabi, USA and Brazil are all expected to favour the Red Bull RB8 and it is now only Vettel, Alonso, Kimi Raikkonen and Webber who have a mathematical chance of winning this year's crown. Raikkonen and Webber though can effectively be discounted as they are respectively 67 and 73 points behind Vettel with only 75 still available.

With a maximum possible score of 100 points over the last four races, Vettel has moved from 39 points behind Alonso to 13 points in front, meaning he has scored just over twice as many points as the Ferrari driver in that period. As such he is the firm favourite for this season's title with odds of just 1.22n/a available, while Alonso moves further out to 5.5n/a and Raikkonen and Webber both at 1000n/a.

The only place to find value then is in the Top 3 market, with the current odds for Raikkonen 173 points 3.1n/a, Webber 167 points 2.1n/a and Hamilton 165 points 3.25n/a. A look at their recent form shows that Raikkonen is Mr Consistency, with no finishes lower than seventh in the last five races and a points-scoring run that began with his second place in Bahrain back in April. Hamilton and Webber have both had higher peaks but also bigger dips in results, and when you factor in the results since Red Bull got their update package on the RB8, I think Webber is the man to finish third in the championship, a position he may take next weekend in Abu Dhabi.

The Constructor's Championship is pretty much sealed after Red Bull 1-3 finish in India. They hold a 91-point lead with only 129 still available, so barring any major reliability issues over the last three races this title will be going back to Milton Keynes. Ferrari, second with 316 points 100n/a and McLaren, third with 306 450n/a, are still mathematically in the fight - but maths can't take into account the superiority of the Red Bull package at present.