Performer of the Month: Sebastian Vettel

It is not just the F1 fraternity struggling to match Sebastian Vettel: the German is once again the Castrol EDGE Performer of the Month, beating all comers from IndyCar, NASCAR and WRC to the accolade.

If Vettel wasn’t the immediate favourite for a title he has now taken for seven consecutive months, he laid down an ominous marker in his first of two races in September, delivering pole position and a dominant win at Monza, a circuit some fancied Red Bull to struggle on.

McLaren’s Jenson Button proved to be his toughest competition in Italy, and the Briton was one of his closest challengers for the September award.

In the US however, Penske’s Will Power was staking his own claim for the Performer of the Month as he kicked off September with a clean sweep at Baltimore – the Australian taking victory, pole position and setting the fastest lap.

Power so nearly repeated the feat two weeks later in Motegi, finishing second in the race from second on the grid, and setting the second fastest lap of the race. He had nevertheless accumulated an impressive total, moving to the top of the IndyCar standings and ensuring Vettel would have to do something special to beat him.

Special performances and Vettel have become inseparable in 2011 however, and the German duly delivered an outstanding performance to hand Red Bull a dominant victory at Singapore.

Button was again his closest competition, closing to within 4s of Vettel in the final stages of the race. Two second places were not enough to overcome Power however, with the Australian finishing second in this month’s Rankings charts.

Tony Stewart was the highest-ranked NASCAR Sprint Cup driver in fourth, having taken two wins, one podium and one seventh-place over the month. Mikko Hirvonen in seventh was the highest WRC driver following his victory in Rally Australia.

Ranking Year

After winning a BMW scholarship fund, Vettel made his race debut in Formula BMW Germany in 2003 and immediately showed his talent by winning on only his third start at Adria.

He won four more times that year on his way to the runner-up spot in the championship, and went one better the following season as he won 18 of the 20 races and dominated the series.

For 2005 he moved up to the F3 Euro Series and won the Rookie of the Year title in his first season. He also had his first taste of F1 machinery at the age of 18 as he tested for Williams - his prize for winning the FBMW crown in his homeland.

It was the following season though in which he truly arrived on the international scene, with his runner-up spot in the F3 Euro Series and two wins from three races in the World Series by Renault almost becoming an afterthought.

This was because after Jacques Villeneuve's sacking from the BMW Sauber F1 squad and Robert Kubica's promotion to a race seat as a result,

Vettel was named as the team's official test driver from the Turkish Grand Prix onwards.

With F1 rules allowing test drivers to compete in Friday practice sessions at grands prix, Vettel was able to gain crucial mileage during the latter half of the year and became the youngest man to top an official F1 session in Turkey.

He made his F1 race debut at Indianapolis the following year in place of Kubica, who had been injured the previous week in an horrific shunt in Canada, and surprised the establishment by qualifying seventh and finishing eighth - becoming the youngest points scorer in World Championship history in the process.

All the while, he remained under a Red Bull management contract, its young driver co-ordinator Helmut Marko clearly spotting his potential from an early age.

Following the sacking of Scott Speed from Red Bull's B-team, Scuderia Toro Rosso, Vettel was given a race seat for the final seven races of the season.

Fourth place in a wet/dry Chinese Grand Prix came his way and helped him secure a full-time F1 race seat with the team for '08.

The baby-faced assassin became the youngest winner in F1 history when he triumphed from pole at that year's Italian Grand Prix and continued his imperious rise the following season as he was moved to Red Bull Racing.

He took the team's first GP win in China last year and finished second in the World Championship behind Jenson Button. It proved to be the building block for a dramatic 2010 campaign.

Unperturbed by failing to score in either of the first two races, a high-speed collision with his team-mate Mark Webber in Turkey that threatened to fracture the Red Bull squad, and an error-strewn performance in Spa, Vettel arrived at the Abu Dhabi season finale still with a slim chance of the title.

Despite trailing Fernando Alonso and Webber as the race started, the cards fell perfectly for the German as he won for the fifth time during the year and the rest messed up, enabling him to become the youngest world champion in the history of F1.

Having been in such sensational form throughout 2011, Vettel now just needs one point from the final five races to secure the 2011 FIA Formula One World Championship – while simply turning up at Japan will likely secure him the Castrol EDGE Rankings top spot for 2011.