There was a shining light during the last race weekend, a beacon amongst the storm of Vettel domination, and that was Mark Webber's pole position. It showed that however predictable things may seem, sometimes Formula One can still offer up a surprise. The paddock heads to India, for the last race at the Buddh Circuit until 2015, and the location that could see this year's championship wrapped up nicely.

Event schedule

Alongside the success at the top, there's a lot to look forward to in this weekend's racing action. Can Sauber repeat their success and close the gap to Force India even further? Will Sergio Pérez raise the ire of his fellow drivers once again? Will there be any flames this time? It's a long season and the cars are starting to show the strain as the long-life components reach the end of their tether - and some of the team personnel might be suffering the same!

Support racing for this event includes MRF Challenge.

The weather

The forecasts for the weekend suggest the weather is going to have a nice bit of consistency, but little of the changeability we've come to expect in recent weeks. The temperature remains almost exactly the same across the three crucial days, humidity is relatively low, and the sun shines for much of the time, albeit with the odd cloud here and there.

Circuit map

The DRS zones for the Indian Grand Prix are very similar to those used at the last race at the Buddh track. The activation point for the first DRS has been brought forward a little but the two remain in the same place.

The first comes after the very tight hairpin leading onto the enormous back straight. The second is detected just before the final corner, with activation after the last turn and down the start/finish straight.

The circuit

The Indian Grand Prix scraped onto the 2011 calendar, finishing up just in time to provide a reasonable debut for the country’s first F1 race.

As per usual, there’s a compromise to be made between maximum downforce and minimum drag, with an eye on the overtaking spots. There are several of them, another thing that newer tracks tend to lack. The first turn in particular should offer up some spectacular passing opportunities.

The first sector of the Buddh circuit sees the home straight lead into a very tight and slow first corner, through several more turns, before heading onto a huge, long straight that leads to turn 4.

Another highlight of the track is the long and winding turns ten and eleven, a massive 215 degree arc that challenges the drivers with several apexes. The difficult track seems to be a popular one with the drivers, as it offers them up some unique corners and a good variety of fast chicanes, slower turns and blind apexes. There’s also the grip level to worry about, as the track isn’t used an awful lot before the F1 weekend.

Tyre compounds

Pirelli have previously been more conservative at the Indian track, bringing the hard and soft compounds, but this time they've narrowed the gap. The medium compound is back in action, with the chosen tyres hopefully bringing a two-stop strategy to the fore, rather than the one-stop we saw last year.

With varying elevations and a wide variety of corners India provides the tyres with quite a test, as there are forces coming from all directions, so tyre management will once again prove to be important. As usual, it should be very warm in India, which increases thermal degradation as well.

- Paul Hembery

Press conference schedule

Official press conferences are organised by the FIA and happen four times during the weekend. The qualifying and post race press conferences will take place after the television unilateral interviews.

Race stewards

The FIA stewarding process was changed recently to include a former F1 driver to offer added insight. These are the stewards overseeing this weekend's action.