Dominant Vettel pulls out ahead of the chasing pack

From four grands prix this season Vettel has scooped four poles, three victories and a second to give him 93 points from a potential maximum of 100.

The 23-year-old’s latest triumph in Turkey yesterday was untroubled as he led for 56 of the 58 laps around the Istanbul Park circuit in a Red Bull that appears virtually untouchable.

Vettel’s only blemish was a tactical one on behalf of the team in the last race in China when they opted for a two-stop strategy, in contrast to Lewis Hamilton’s winning three-stopper.

On this occasion Hamilton finished fourth, a remarkable 40 seconds behind Vettel who was 8.8secs clear of team-mate Mark Webber for an 11th Red Bull one-two.

At present it appears all too easy for Vettel and Red Bull and with no one unable to halt their momentum.

But Vettel said: “The day you start to think you are unbeatable is the day you are beaten.

“We are racing at the highest level where we all try to win, try to be better than the other guys.

“But there is always someone at some point who will teach you a lesson and will give you a very hard time and beat you.

“Of course I’m very happy with today, the start of the season and how we work together as a team and pull together in one direction.

“But there is never any time to really rest and think everything is under control.

“It’s been a good start to the season, but there is a long, long way to go.

“We’ve only had four of 19 races, so I think you can work out how many points are left.”

Webber has improved race on race – fifth, fourth, third, second is his sequence of results to date – but even he concedes beating his team-mate is a tall order.

“Seb is on top of his game, he has had a good start to the season, no question about it, nearly a maximum which is not ideal for the rest of us,” said Webber.

“It means it’s up to the rest of us to do the best we can to stop him sooner rather than later.

“Every driver on the grid has weaknesses, some more than others, so it’s up to you to try and interrogate those when you can.”

Vettel admitted to being in control from start to finish, enjoying “a smooth race” whilst overtaking mayhem unfolded behind him.

The result more than made up for his one mistake this year when he wrecked his car after crashing in first practice on Friday.

“This one is for the guys who got my car back together, with everyone playing a role, not only my mechanics but also Mark’s,” added Vettel.

“I have to say, when I walked in on Saturday morning every worry was gone because the mechanics gave me the impression that nothing had happened, nothing was wrong, that we would continue as normal.

“This helped a lot, and it means a lot if people who are close to you give you the impression there is nothing to worry about, and they make you feel comfortable.”

Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso made the podium for the first time this season, whilst behind Hamilton, who is second in the standings but a whopping 34 points behind Vettel, came Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg and McLaren team-mate Jenson Button.

Behind Vettel there were overtaking manoeuvres galore, yet when you analyse it there were just two positional changes from the top six on the grid, with Alonso and Rosberg swapping places.

Hamilton was happy to admit he was too rash on the first lap when he attempted to pass Webber, losing two places and so compromising the rest of his race.

“I should have been up to third at the beginning of the race, and I could have been battling for second,” said Hamilton.

“I know the race is not won at the first two corners, but I was really impatient, so I have to admit it’s my fault.

“I’ve apologised to the guys because I know they worked as hard as they could, but we were definitely able to do better.

“I made a couple of mistakes at the beginning which cost me quite a lot of ground, but to get fourth is not too bad a recovery.”

Paul di Resta failed to finish for Force India for the first time so far this season due to a technical issue.