"Jenson was less fortunate this afternoon. He was unfortunately clipped by Fernando on lap one - that contact cracked the rim of his right-rear wheel and caused a puncture. That was extremely regrettable, because he was running on the Prime tyre, which he should have been using for the next 25 laps!

"Thereafter, his was destined to be a three-stopper, which was always going to be hard work. Unfortunately, in the closing laps, he reported a mis-shift in the gearbox, so we stopped his car as a precautionary measure before the end.

"Congratulations to Sebastian today. He once again drove faultlessly to put the title beyond the reach of his closest rival. To win four world titles - particularly four in a row - is incredibly impressive stuff. He'll have a few days to enjoy this achievement, but it's a mark of his relentless competitiveness that I'm sure he'll be fighting for victory in Abu Dhabi in a week's time."

Nico finished in second place today, scoring the team's eighth podium of the 2013 season and our first second place finish. Lewis finished in sixth place after spending much of the race stuck behind the slower Ferrari of Felipe Massa. Both drivers ran option/prime/prime with Nico stopping on laps 7 & 27 and Lewis on laps 8 & 30. Scoring 26 points this afternoon, the team reclaimed second place in the Constructors' Championship on 313 points. This represents the team's strongest result since the Belgian Grand Prix in late August.

Ross Brawn: First of all, congratulations to Sebastian Vettel on winning his fourth World Championship. To win multiple championships as he has done, you must be not just a driver but also a fantastic team member, and he clearly has all the attributes that requires. It's now up to us to stop him. From the team's perspective, we scored a very solid team result this afternoon. Nico enjoyed a very, very good afternoon: the strategy worked out perfectly for him and he got all the right breaks, which allowed him to show what the car was capable of delivering. For Lewis, losing position to Massa early in the race proved critical. That meant we were unable to build a gap in the opening stint because we couldn't run at our natural pace, so as others behind us pitted, we had to anticipate our first stop in spite of having plenty of life left in the tyres. After that point, Lewis didn't have the straightline speed to pass Felipe and make the most of the core performance of the car. That naturally left him frustrated but shouldn't overshadow the good work both drivers and engineering teams did this weekend. We gathered a good haul of points today and need to continue to do so in the remaining races.

Toto Wolff: Congratulations to Sebastian Vettel on his fourth consecutive World Championship. He has done a perfect job since the summer break and this is a richly deserved title. For our Mercedes team, Nico delivered a really good drive today. He showed pace when it mattered and managed the race when it counted. It was great to see him back on the podium. Lewis was compromised on the first lap and we didn't have the top speed to pass Massa on track today. Clearly, when you are following a car so closely for so many laps, that doesn't help tyre degradation and that was why he ran out of tyres in the final laps. Taking all of that into account, P6 is still a solid result and contributed more valuable points. We have had a good afternoon compared to our direct rivals today but there is still a long way to go until we can say mission accomplished. There is no complacency and our target will be to deliver another three strong weekends this season.

Monisha Kaltenborn, Team Principal: "We are very disappointed, because Nico was clearly in the points before a technical problem forced him to retire. Even if this was a set back today, it is important for us to know that our competitiveness is still there. We are able to score points and still have a chance to improve. Congratulations to Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull for winning the World Championships."

Tom McCullough, Head of Track Engineering: "Overall it is disappointing to end our points scoring run, when we had the pace with both cars. Unfortunately, there was a problem with Nico's car, which we still don't know what it is. We sent Nico out with a fresh set of tyres, but the car was not driveable and it was not possible to continue. We have to wait until we get the car back from parc ferme to determine the cause of the problem. With Esteban, the jump-start resulted in a drive through penalty, and, as a result, it was not possible to score points. On a positive note, the performance of the car gives us every confidence for the remaining races."

Xevi Pujolar, Chief Race Engineer: We decided to split our strategies running the tyres in a different order across the cars due to the big difference in tyre life and performance between the compounds. We planned a two-stop race for both drivers with Valtteri starting on medium tyres and Pastor on softs. Pastor had a great start, gaining positions and had good pace during his first stint. The option tyres were degrading quickly so we needed to pit him quite early in the race. He then maintained good pace on the medium tyres, coming on strong towards the end as the cars ahead began to struggle and he was fighting in the group of cars chasing the final point. Valtteri was looking after his medium tyres in the opening stint, but shortly before his first pitstop we lost radio communication to his car, which resulted in him pitting later than we had wanted and this lost him time and track position. All-in-all our pace and consistency has improved since Japan. Considering the radio problem we had and that our pitstop times were compromised to ensure safety, the end result was the best we could have hoped for today.

Laurent Debout, Renault Sport F1 team support leader: The strategy seemed to work in the first part of the race and Valtteri was in a very strong position for a lot of the GP but unfortunately we fell back in the second part. We can look forward to Abu Dhabi that should suit the strengths of the engine a lot more. Congratulations to Red Bull and to Sebastian, who were crowned worthy champions today.

Max was eager to maintain his record of finishing every race so far this season, but despite a fantastic start off the line, his chances hung in the balance for a while after he was struck from behind by the Caterham of van der Garde. A lap later Max was fighting an issue on the left rear wheel and it looked like he may not be able to continue. Thankfully, the problem improved over the course of the next few laps, allowing him to recover and find some impressive pace. Having started on the Medium tyre, he completed a two-stop race with a final six-lap stint on the Soft tyre. In strategic terms he was neck and neck with Jules at this point in the race but Max gave it all he had in the final laps on the Medium tyre and after the switch he emerged from the pit lane just 0.8s ahead.

Jules also got off to a strong start. In contrast to Max he began his race on the Soft tyre, switching to the Medium tyre after 5 laps. He drove the perfect race, maintaining a good gap ahead of the remaining Caterham of Pic until he too retired, along with his team-mate. Unfortunately for Jules, a pit stop delay cost him 11 seconds, which made all the difference at the end of the race.

John Booth, Team Principal: "Once again we enjoyed two impressive starts here in India today. Max's start in particular catapulted him past both Caterhams and, save for a small incident in Turn 1, it was clear that we were going to emerge out of that corner with both of ours cars ahead of the two Caterhams. From this point on it was a fascinating race between our two drivers, who were well clear of Pic. We had started with two very different strategies to address Jules and Max's relative positions on the grid and we knew that we would see the net result of that only at the point at which they were both running in their final stint - when Max would be switching to the Soft tyre for his final six-lap stint. On paper, Jules' strategy should have put him ahead but a loss of time in the pits meant that ultimately Max came home in front, albeit by the narrowest of margins. Overall I commend both drivers on two excellent race performances and once again Max maintains his record of 100% reliability. It is also rewarding to see continued steps forward with our race pace. Finally, many congratulations to Sebastian Vettel on his fourth Drivers' Championship victory."

There were mixed strategies throughout the top 10 on the grid, with six drivers - including pole man Vettel - starting on the soft tyre and four starting on the medium tyre. Red Bull's Mark Webber was the highest-placed driver to start on the medium tyre in fourth: the best qualifying position seen so far this year for a driver setting his best time on the harder of the two nominated compounds on a Saturday.

The first pit stops came at the end of lap one, with Force India's Paul di Resta and Toro Rosso's Jean-Eric Vergne switching from the soft to the medium compound. Vettel made the same move at the end of lap two from the lead, re-joining at the back and handing the advantage to Ferrari's Felipe Massa - who became the first man other than Vettel to ever lead a lap of the Indian Grand Prix.

Massa pitted on lap eight, putting Webber into the lead. Webber pitted on lap 28 for softs, at which point Vettel was back into the lead. Vettel's final stop was on lap 31 for the medium, followed one lap later by his team mate - who also went on to the medium for his final stint before retiring on lap 39 with mechanical problems.

Paul Hembery: "With a notable lap time difference between the two compounds, strategy was at the forefront of this action-packed Indian Grand Prix. We saw some very different approaches being taken all the way down the grid, which was roughly split between drivers starting on the soft and the medium tyre. We also saw many teams split their strategies between both cars, in order to cover every possibility. Sebastian Vettel's early pit stop meant that he was able to undercut his direct rivals on the same strategy, but Webber was able to gain track position by staying out longer: which basically summed up how the different tactics worked. However, we are disappointed to see that some teams went against our recommendations and used the compounds for longer than we advised them to do. Most of all though, congratulations to Sebastian and Red Bull for their fourth consecutive double championship: a testament to their astounding capabilities in every area all year, including their skills at using the tyres and strategy to gain an advantage."

Our prediction for the 60-lap Indian Grand Prix strategy was two stops. We suggested that the fastest strategy was: start on the soft; change to the medium on lap two, and a final stint on the medium from lap 28.

This is more or less exactly what Vettel did, stopping on lap two as predicted but then making his final stop on lap 31: three laps later than forecast.