Lotus had the car to match or even beat Red Bull today, but one driver underperformed in qualifying, and the other underperformed in the race, meaning that neither could challenge Vettel, unfortunately.
Need to agree with that. Raikkonen is better race driver, Grosjean seems to find his pace on quali with the new tyres.
It is also worth mentioning that Lotus seems to caught up in qualifications nowdays. They are usually not close behind RBR (for Grosjean) in Qualifications, and Grosjean is even capable of fighting with Mercedes duo and Webber.
Raikkonen has some problems with the tyres, so he isn't as good as Grosjean in qualifications sadly. Yet he is superior to him in the race, he is simply faster than him so far in the race, and has a bit more luck to be honest.
Though I would say that Lotus has slightly better tyre management still, that's might be the reason why Vettel was controlling the pace, to do not do additional pit stop. Safety Car helped him a lot though, I would say that Grosjean was capable of undercuttin him.
To be absolutely honest, the only car at the very moment (though this might be biased) that could challenge RBR in the race is Lotus. They maybe miss a bit in raw pace, but still are capable of fighting them. Mercedes didn't look good in Singa and Korea. Ferrari is lost case already, Alonso podiums are usually due to major ****ups of Lotus / Mercedes, and his insane skill (I rate him as 2nd best in Formula 1 nowdays).
But it is also worth mentioning, that Vettel is simply god damn brilliant driver.
I wouldn't be amazed to be absolutely honest, if all races till the end will be win by Nr 1 driver. Only possibility of him not winning the race at the moment is mechanical failure, then I would expect one of Lotus duo to take a given win.
For me it is same case as it was in 2011.