The Grand Finale 2012 Review

Greetings Internet,

Before we start there is one initial point that needs to be made - That. Was. Awesome. We've had season deciding races in the past, some of those have been the finale event, but out of all those we've witnessed, that was the greatest. The world turned on their televisions this afternoon looking for some madness, looking for unpredictability  looking for something that turned a one sided championship challenge into a tight enthralling battle. We may all have been hoping for all of that to come true, but in the hours that preceded it - most of them at rehearsal - few would have bargained on the race turning into the immense dynamic event that it was. This finale had everything and more, safety car interventions, great racing and clumsy overtaking manoeuvres ending in contact and retirements. All of them brought to the fore by that one key ingredient, the ingredient we were hoping would set off some chaos, something that would convert a final race procession into a seething swirling sea of dynamism. In the end it wasn't enough to change the outcome of the title, but it was a lot of fun coming to that conclusion - even if we were robbed of the final two laps of the race.

That ingredient once more was rain, it made a fleeting visit in the opening phase of first qualifying but despite initial ideas that it might have stayed dry throughout the race, fortunately, that didn't happen. First it was dry, then it was wet, then it was dry again - and then it was both wet and dry before the rains set in for the final phase of the race, and of course we all finished in formation under the safety car in the rain. I have seen a lot of races from here in blog HQ, most of them before it was Blog HQ and over that time there have been few races where so much has been going on that you lose track completely of where all the cars are in the race - or how they got there. Even the TV director couldn't catch up with much of the racing. It does make me wonder how earth I am going to transform all of those events, passes and incidents into words and comprehensible paragraphs. So here goes...

Image credit to F1Fanatic.co.uk

The Race

In all of the championship finales that the blog has seen the anticipation before this one was so much more intense than it was before the start of this race, a thick but undecided veil of cloud was waiting ominously over the top of Interlagos. But the forecasts suggested that it would clear leading to a dry race - a forecast that seemed unnerved by a thin mist moisture sweeping over the grid, as many nervous faces looked away from the radar screens and stared up into the sky. The track surface was merely mildly damp, nothing to force the teams to discard their slick tyres for the intermediates, with nothing to suggest that it would get any worse...oh how wrong they were to be.

On a greasy track both of the Red Bull cars were slow off the line allowing Felipe Massa to make a brilliant start to clear the entire second row and pass Button through the first corner. Alonso followed but his progress was halted by Mark Webber - but where was the German Bloke in this - he'd fallen behind both Ferraris and behind Hulkenberg's Force India. Being in the middle of the pack is a dangerous place especially when heading down towards the dampest corner of the lap, on cold tyres. A danger that was very narrowly avoided when Kimi Raikkonen directly behind Vettel locked up and come very, very close to wiping the German out of the race. The coast was far from clear, because he turned into turn four to find Bruno Senna was in the same place, Vettel was turned around by the Williams and span back into its path. Significant contact was made as Senna bounced off the Red Bull and into Perez's Sauber. Astoundingly Vettel was able to spin turn the car and keep going, despite taking some damage to the exhaust section of the car. Well done Newey, that is one tough car. Senna and Perez were out of the race with damage.

Having lost a place back to Button on the opening lap, Massa was now under pressure from Webber in the Red Bull - Mark got a strong run out of turn twelve and across the line but Felipe defended making Webber go the long way round. However as he had the Australian pinned to the outside Massa opened the door on the inside for Alonso to sweep past and take the pair of them - advantage Fernando, because at this stage by virtue of being on the podium provisionally, was the leader of the championship as Vettel was down the back of the field following the spin. Track conditions were getting slipperier and despite moving onto the podium Alonso was off the pace of the two McLarens out front. Meanwhile Hulkenberg is moving through the field, taking places away from both Webber and Massa to move up into fourth place. Fourth became third when track conditions got the better of the Ferrari driver running off at turn one handing the podium place to the Force India - advantage now passed back to Vettel.

Were things planning on settling down - not by a long shot, increased rainfall meant Alonso was still short of pace, building a long and angry train of cars behind him - with Felipe doing his best to distract Webber who was Fernando's immediate threat. Massa managed to pass the Red Bull to give Alonso some extra support as Grosjean, Kobayashi and Di Resta joined the train behind the two Ferraris, but the queue thinned out a little towards the end of the lap. While the camera focussed on the front of the train Romain Grosjean gets caught out by the damp and spins off planting the Lotus significantly in the tyre barrier on the exit of turn 11. Somewhere in the melee Maldonado had retired from the race, but god knows how or when because the camera work missed his departure. As TV replays tried to establish how Grosjean left the race, the footage cut back to see Webber pointing in the wrong direction in the first corner, a result of some contact from Kobayashi's Sauber. Both drivers were able to continue the race without any significant damage - a broken wing element on the Sauber but that was about it.

All this had resulted in a three car breakaway group out front with the two McLarens still fighting each other and Hulkenberg gaining as their battle continued. The lead pair swapped positions on the main straight, before Hamilton regained the place into the first corner, before Hamilton lost the position in the DRS zone before turn four. In the background Nico was coming ever closer to the front, and somehow Vettel was now inside the top ten despite being binned on the opening lap and falling down to the back of the grid. As for the rain, well it just kicked things up a notch - only a tiny one but enough to send some drivers to the pit lane looking for intermediate tyres. This lead to all kinds of drivers being out of position - a long way out of position as Heikki Kovalainen - the driver Caterham might be binning at the end of the season was 6th, with both Pic and Petrov also in the points. Button and Hulkenberg however stayed out front, on slicks because the rain was starting to ease off slightly and the surface was starting to dry out.

The main rivals found themselves fighting each other in the middle of the pack - Vettel passing Webber but this was only over 14th at this stage as the intermediates were still the most stable tyre, if not the fastest. Demonstrated by Hamilton as his inters were much quicker than the slicks on Massa's car, passing the Ferrari easily - as a result of falling further back Felipe brought his car in for intermediate rubber. Something that made the performances of the lead two more impressive being able to fight with each other on slicks miles ahead of everyone else - a fight that was won in Hulkenbergs favour when he passed Jenson to take the lead of the race before driving off to a comfortable advantage. Vettel was also on another recovery drive taking advantage of a mistake by Kobayashi in turn one to take the place from the Sauber. Those lower division cars in the midst of this battle were soon filtered out of the proceedings although Pic tried very hard to prevent Kamui coming past, pushing the Sauber onto the wet grass down the DRS straight. After all that has happened this race the next car in front of the German bloke was in fact Alonso's Ferrari as the pair ran 4th and 5th on the road.

If the race hadn't seen enough developments the camera cut to Nico Rosberg who had a badly shredded rear tyre, mere moments after Alonso calls his team informing them that there was a lot of debris on the circuit. Frankly I have no idea where half of it came from, some would have been the initial crash, some was Kamui's wing elements, the rest is anyone's guess the camera missed quite a lot. The bit Rosberg encountered was in turn five, and I can't remember anyone hitting each other then. As a result of this strange influx of carbon fibre shards lying around the track the safety car was deployed, much to the annoyance of Hulkenberg and Button who had a huge lead on account of staying on the track on slicks while everyone else pitted. It was also the first time in a long while when nothing happened in the race.

On the restart Hulkenberg was able to break away from the two McLarens behind, while Alonso was able to stay clear of his rival just one place behind. Vettel however was a little pre-occupied with the only remaining Sauber as Kobayashi passed the prospective world champion into turn one, oddly Webber was on the outside of his team-mate making it three wide into the first corner. The outside of the track was still a little too damp and ran wide and off the track. Kamui now set his sights on Alonso ahead. All drivers now lapping on slick tyres as the rainfall had now stopped, still leaving the painted lines and run-off areas extremely slippery. Further up ahead the McLarens swapped places once more seeing Hamilton pass Button into turn four in an effort to catch Hulkenberg ahead. Within two laps of passing Vettel, Kobayashi had now passed the Ferrari of Alonso in the DRS zone - passing two double world champions after the restart is a notable achievement. Although Fernando only spend half a lap behind the Sauber re-taking the place on the main straight.

Massa was the next driver on a charge, catching up to Vettel, aiming to place another car between the German bloke and his team-mate, the problem Sebastien had was not quick enough in straight line to keep other cars at bay. Massa used the DRS to get alongside the Red Bull before sweeping round the outside in turn three. Felipe then caught and passed Kobayashi's Sauber in much the same manner driving round the outside to take the place away. A feat Vettel was unable to replicate, lacking the speed to maximise the power of the DRS and remained unable to pass Kamui. As out front Hulkenberg continues to lead, pulling away from the cars behind him, things were less stable and consistent at the lower end of the points. Raikkonen was on a comeback after narrowly avoiding an accident on lap one, and then putting on the intermediate tyres a little too early and ruining the compound, to find himself in a battle with Schumacher in turn one. Kimi was forced to the outside of the Mercedes in turn one, but was able to hold the line through the Senna S only millimetres apart.

The track had developed a clear dry line passing the advantage at the front to Hamilon in the battle for the lead, but is also tempted drivers to use more of the track - this resulting in drivers touching the white painted lines and having problems. First up was Vitaly Petrov who was leading the final division and up for taking 10th in constructors for Caterham, sliding off in turn 8 losing that position. Next up was Mark Webber at Juncao, touching the line on braking and executing a elegant drift round the corner. The most pivotal error belongs to the leader Hulkenberg who performed an identical spin to Petrov and conceded the lead to Hamliton's McLaren.

This would have been a decent cue for things to settle down - for people to go and put the kettle on for the mid-race beverage, but it was the weather that decided to intervene this time gently starting to increase the amount of rainfall. At first everyone shrugged it off as the transition was quite gradual to begin with, Rosberg was the first to pit for the intermediate tyres anticipating a much greater amount of precipitation, Vettel was having difficulties communicating with the team so when he pulled in for a stop, no-one had any tyres ready. This time loss was compensated by Alonso staying out as the rain started to actually become rain rather than misting droplets, almost putting the car in the wall in the infamous rivers of turn three. Instead executing an epic save to keep him in the race. Raikkonen however was off an a mini adventure of his own, after going off in the final corner he took to an escape road behind the barriers. Kimi drove around on an old part of the track only to find the route back to the racing surface was blocked... We'll get back to that adventure later...

Because Hulkenberg had found pace in the wet, a lot more pace than Hamliton out front catching up to the McLaren and sensing an opportunity to take the lead through traffic. As Lewis was passing a Marussia, Nico went down the inside of both of them also when trying to avoid Kovalainen in the Caterham at the same time, on the damper inside line the Force India got sideways sliding into the side of Hamilton's McLaren tearing front suspension off and ending his race. Hulkenberg on the other side was able to rejoin the race, before being handed a drive through penalty for some apparent season. It was a spin that happened to involve another car, but never mind. This put Alonso up into a net second and then put him very close to taking the championship away from Vettel, who was in the minimum place needed to win. Taking that seventh place position from Kamui Kobayashi through turn five, edging the Sauber out onto the run-off in the process, after he Japanese driver didn't feel like giving up, fortunately the rain wasn't bad enough to fire the car into the nearest barrier.

Laps were running out and the rainfall was continually increasing, something that was hurting the pace of Schumacher dropping him back towards Vettel increasing his chances of making another position, a move that was made easier by the fact that Schumacher is friends with the German bloke. So he made the overtake very easy indeed, and Vettel was up into 6th place, making the championship that bit more secure. The only thing that could derail that would be Alonso taking the lead, but Button was 20s clear of anyone out front, with less than ten laps left a he was quite safe. Back to Raikkonen and he had managed to break free from the maze of escape roads behind turn 12, spin turning the car and coming back the way he came rejoining in 11th place. Completing more miles than any other driver in the race by this point. Just behind the Finn the bottom division battle was intensifying as Charles Pic was under-pressure from Petrov for 12th - the Russian used Alonso lapping the battle for the cover he needed to take the place from the Marussia. Slighly ironic when it was Vitaly who prevented Alonso taking the championship in 2010, for roles and fortunes to be reverse as the Spaniard helped Caterham claim their mini championship win.

Could we get through the final few laps without contact or any other kind of madness - well in short no - it all started with Kamui having a go at Schumacher for 7th place, the Sauber looked up the inside on the DRS straight. Of course the wing system has been disabled due to the increased amount of rain at this stage due to the conditions, it was the rain that prevented Kobayashi holding a tighter inside line and therefore slid gently into the Mercedes. Bouncing gracefully of Schumacher's sidepod the Sauber span round, but no damage was done. The final act of the race belonged to Paul Di Resta, who encountered difficulties up the climb towards the line, aquaplaning mid-corner and crashing heavily into the new safer barrier installed on the exit. Wondered when it would see some use this weekend, and it does seem to work as Di Resta only seemed disoriented by the hit. As a result the safety car was deployed again, but this was the penultimate lap meaning the race and the season would finish under the safety car. The race by the same man who opened the scoring back in Australia, mastering the difficult conditions and cementing his new role as number one at McLaren. Behind Button Alonso finished second, the best he could have got out of the car, but was it enough for the title. Felipe completed the podium for Ferrari in his home race.

Despite being span early on, and a powerslide through the penultimate corner, Mark Webber claimed fourth position, in 5th place Hulkenberg recovered from a crash and a penalty. But 6th place was enough to Vettel to take a third consecutive championship, after a first lap accident and pitting before the team had tyres ready for him. On his final race of a second retirement in Brazil - the first one Raikkonen has actually attended - Michael Schumacher claimed some points the first for Mercedes for a long while as well. In a race of lots of madness, Vergne managed to sneak through under the radar to take 8th place for Toro Rosso, recovering from a late spin Kobayashi stayed in the top ten in 9th for two points. The final point of the season goes to our Interlagos adventurer Kimi Raikkonen on his return from mapping the uncharted territory behind turn 12.

The bonus points championship points winners

At the conclusion of the final race of the season it is time to unveil the last set of scores in defining who gets the immense honour of being crowned the second ever blog HQ bonus points champion. Here are the final results.

• 25pts - Nico Hulkenberg - A brilliant race in the Force India, would have won if it wasn't for the contact with Hamliton, regret firing him yet Williams...
• 18pts - Jenson Button - Staying out on slicks in the beginning took balls and another great performance in difficult conditions
• 15pts -Vitaly Petrov - Scoring Caterham's best ever finish in 11th and earning the team 10th in the constructrors championship
• 12pts - Felipe Massa - A brilliant start and some brilliant overtakes to the outside of people
• 10pts - Kamui Kobayashi - Passing two double world champions in a space of a few laps deserves a mention
• 8pts - Fernando Alonso - Get everything out of the car, helped by accidents, but made save of the day in turn three on the slicks
• 6pts - Sebastien Vettel - Doing enough to win the championship despite being turned around and damaged on the opening lap 
• 4pts - Adrian Newey - The is a mighty strong car you've built there, how it survived that hit is very impressive
• 2pts - Kimi Raikkonen - Has to have a couple of points for avoiding Vettel on lap one, and then his random adventure at the back of the track
• 1pt - Mark Webber - Gets a point for that epic drift through Juncao.

I also want to give the following bonus points out in addition to a driver scores

• 10pts - Rain - Thanks for that race, your contribution was exceptional today
• 10pts - BBC - For doing a much better job than sky all year
• 10pts - Brazil - For being the greatest race of the season, up there with Canada 2011

The penalties championship

The last penalty of the season was handed to Nico Hulkenberg for that contact with Hamilton where a drive through penalty was issued.

The penalties 

As this was the final race of the season I think I can let the various little driving infringements slide, because after all conditions were challenging - but of course everyone is not safe for there will be a penalty for the stewards for Nico's penalty because it was a racing incident and throwing penalties at people is not very nice frankly.

Looking forward to 2013

If this season is anything to go by the next one is going to be immense, we have driver changes some of which are exiting with Perez at Sauber, and Hamliton down at Mercedes - while others are less impressive including Gutierrez being funded into the middle of the Sauber team. Regulatory stability should allow the cars to be much closer and more competitive, so the battle at the front could be very exciting indeed. Aside from that no-one knows what is waiting for us on the other side of the off-season. But in respect to the season we have just had the pleasure of witnessing - and in the words of the BBC at the completion of a mesmerising final race - "Don't be sad that it has ended, smile because it happened". For now this is farewell from the blog until the bonus points are totalled up and the 2012 champion is revealed

The Grand Finale: Brazil Pre-race

Greetings Internet,

The first half of grand finale has now been completed under what was an increasingly brightening sky, there was the faint hint that qualifying was going to be reflection of the rain interrupted madness of 2010. A session which saw Hulkenberg take pole - to which Williams rewarded the achievement by firing him... friendly. It is such matters that are at the forefront of discussions before we get into the content of the session earlier on today. Two more driver movements have been decided before the start of the weekend, both of which have some fairly disturbing implications for the line-up going into 2013. First up we have a change at the back of the grid, where Charles Pic has been collected by Caterham on what is dubbed a multi-year deal. This works out well for Pic because Marussia have a habit of binning Timo's team-mates after the first year, once they've extracted the maximum sponsor money out of them. However this only leaves one more seat at Caterham, and the team have one decision to make - pick the best driver, or one who pays to be here - a decision which looks bad for Kovalainen because having money is much more important than actual ability.

Then there is the other driver change slightly further forward - where once more being able to drive the car appears not to be a requisite for being on the grid. Because Sauber have binned Kobayashi, to be replaced with GP2 driver Esteban Gutierrez who looks barely old enough to own a car never mind race one on an F1 grid. His backing comes from the same source as One-Stop Perez which is enough money to overthrow Kamui's position, and there is a lack of possible other seats for the Japanese racer to go to in the coming season. I have so say I am disappointed on both counts, the same thing got Hulkenberg fired seasons ago - it is a reflection on the dammed state of the global economy it's managed to ruin pretty much everything crippling all life as we know it into an endless stream of emptiness. That is tolerable, but messing with the sport, not cool people, not cool.

All that aside there was a very important session sitting underneath the layers of political selections, and the imminent threat of interesting conditions. Where everyone was focussed on the two drivers duelling for the championship.

credit to F1Fanatic.co.uk

Qualifying

Half an hour before the session was due to begin, the skies deposited a thin layer of rain on the track, and raised several theories about how much more was going to fall before and during the proceedings. It was a shower that seemed to raise hopes a little in the Ferrari garage as their dry running pace was a significantly down on his major rival. But the shower was only brief and the majority of the track had dried out before the first cars were due to venture out.

It was a disorganised queue of the newer cars at the bottom end of the pit lane headed by Heikki, probably wanting to get away from his team before they fire him for not being rich enough. All six of the lower cars tried to leave the garage all at the same time - to the point where Pic almost thought about passing an HRT down the exit road. The battle continued onto the track, where Glock passed Kovalainen on the inside of Juncao corner, but ran wide almost bumping the Caterham off track in the process. Heikki cut back to the inside of the Marussia onto the main straight. Everyone else decided not bother going out onto the track waiting for the rest of the field to clear a drier line, but there was a lot oversteering moments on the single wet corner of the lap.

After a while the main runners took to the track looking to defeat an the early pace by Maldonado and Kobayashi, it was clear that McLaren had the pace over the most of the competition not too far ahead of Red Bull. As the track dried up the times started to tumble rapidly shaving seconds off the top time, but then there was a little bit of incident, which wasn't too far away from being a massive incident. As Grosjean tried to find space which didn't exist on the inside of Pedro De La Rosa's HRT. Contact was made and Romain lost his front wing in the process, fortunately the wing didn't go under the front wheels and fire the Lotus into the wall. Grosjean lost time replacing the wing, and therefore didn't have enough time to get back up to speed. The lap he set at the end of the session was beaten by Ricciardo knocking him into the relegation zone with the new teams while Hamliton ended the session on top.

Into the second session and the track was now dry enough across the entire lap for the slick tyres and lap times were much closer to the dry times posted in the final practice session. In an initial change of fortune the Ferrari drivers were at the top of the times at the start of the session, but there was no time on the board from the Red Bulls or the McLaren drivers so that would explain why Ferrari were able to take an initial lead. Hulkenberg was able to split the two Ferraris, and this time he would be able to qualify the car without being fired - even though he is moving across to Sauber. All of the remaining drivers had set a time apart from the top two teams - but they had just left the garage to start an outlap.

Almost as soon as Hamilton took to the track he decimated Alonso's leading time, finding close to a full second over the Ferrari, Vettel was then able to go a couple of tenths faster after drafting Massa on the main straight. Not sure that will go down well in the Ferrari camp, considering the team would give Massa penalty even if his breathing inconvenienced Alonso. In the remaining minutes of the session the Ferraris started to fall towards the end of the top ten as Raikkonen, Maldonado and Rosberg were able to break into the top ten. Massa too found himself out of the final part of qualifying, but a last lap rescued his position to the expense of Paul Di Resta in the second Force India.

Ten minutes and ten drivers remained for the final part of qualifying including both of the championship contenders at opposite ends of the roster - at this stage things were looking rather good for Vettel to walk away on Sunday with another championship. But there was one session to go, although the rainfall for the day had stopped leaving a dry playing field to define the grid for tomorrow. A session that was started by the only remaining Mercedes in the competition - Nico Rosberg, setting a comparatively slow time - a time that was pulverised by Hamilton to the tune of nine seconds, illustrating how limited Nico's opening effort was. Alonso was only able to come within 6 tenths of the McLaren to line up second on his first run. This 6 tenth gap was first exploited by Button, followed soon by Massa and Webber. As for Vettel his first effort saw him run wide and only manage 6th behind the Ferrari, as everyone regrouped for the second run.

In the gap when the track was empty, Hulkenberg used the space to move up into fourth before the others came back out again. It was Webber who was the first to readjust the order setting the new fastest time in the Red Bull, in a time that weathered the storm both Alonso and his team-mate Vettel. A strong time from Maldonado saw Fernando lose another place - but at the top it was Hamilton once more edging ahead of the Australian only leaving button to complete his lap. Jenson was going rather quickly but when the McLaren crossed the line he was half a tenth slower then the other silver machine resulting in a McLaren 1-2, and a pole for Lewis in his final race for the team. Red Bull claim the second row with Webber the quicker of the pair. Massa out-qualified Alonso to score 5th, which probably annoyed every fibre of the Ferrari pit wall. Maldonado and Hulkenberg were next on grid before we finally get to the second Ferrari entry. At the bottom of the top ten we have Raikkonen and Rosberg.

The Bonus Points championship points winners

With the main championship approaching its conclusion it is time to unveil the penultimate entry in the bonus points championship where there are far more drivers in contention -  including both of the central rivals out in the real world, whatever the real world is anymore. Here are the winners from Qualifying.

• 10pts - Nico Hulkenberg - Two years after being fired by Williams for taking pole and not being rich enough coming back to be on the same row as his highly financially backed replacement
• 8pts - Mark Webber - 
• 6pts - Vitaly Petrov - For out qualifying Heikki, although the team have thoroughly demoralised the Finn in their team decisions
• 5pts - Felipe Massa - For out qualifying Alonso, which is a rebellious move, fight the system Felipe and win bonus points for doing so
• 4pts - Lewis Hamliton - So much speed this weekend, makes you wonder why leave it but going quickly at the moment
• 3pts - Jenson Button - Almost taking pole from his team-mate in another stong session
• 2pts - Timo Glock/Kovalainen - Have to have bonus points for their sideways duel in the wet final sector of the lap, 
• 1pt - Pastor Maldonado - Has to have point for a ballsy pass on De La Rosa round the outside near the wall in the final corner. 

The Penalties championship

Despite the very close call between the Lotus and HRT in Q1 no penalties were handed out to them, we only have one penalty to add to the charts following qualifying. That penalty goes to Pastor Maldonado who ignored the light telling him to visit the weighbridge. As a result he earned himself a 10 place grid penalty, on the surface this seems harsh, but is a consequence of receiving three warnings in a season for various other offences this year, so cumulatively this is the result.

The Penalty points championship

This table however does get some additional entrants following the opening phase of this weekend, and are as follows.

• Romain Grosjean - trying to fit the car in that space was madness, and the result of the contact could have been very destructive indeed and dangerous.
• Sauber - for binning Kamui for a financially backed youth
• Catherham - for seemingly neglecting Heikki - the best driver their struggling team has on the verge of being thrown out of the series altogether.

Looking to tomorrow

Every post session interview referenced one thing - rain - the forecast has been fluctuating across the day, from presenting a dry session to an 80% chance of heavy rains, so the outcome of the race will likely be defined by the weather. In the dry we can assume that the McLarens - barring mechanical failures - to vanish off into the distance tailed by the Red Bulls. Alonso will fight past the Force India of Hulkenberg, and be gifted the next place by Massa who will be on orders not to occupy the same straight as the Spaniard. Once released will charge after the cars in front for a final battle to the line, but the championship will once more be handed across to that German bloke.

Should the rain fall however absolutely anything can happen, we've had wet Brazillan GP's where one third of the podium finished the race in hospital and the victory took a week to figure out - eventually becoming the last win for Jordan. Titles have been won and lost in the rain in Interlagos all within 200m of the finish line. A wet race is a mire of unpredictability and potential for safety cars is massively increased, in the aforementioned race the safety car was called on several occasions to cover several accidents and incidents - so the grand finale of F1 2012 could be a very exciting adventurous event, well worth looking forward to. Something to see the season out on a high, so the blog hopes for rain because I would like a mad, mad race to end the year. So until tomorrow this is farewell from the blog.

The Grand Finale 2012 - Brazil Preview

Greetings Internet,

It has all come down to this, the previous 19 races filtered the competition down from 24 drivers who lined up in Australia before any points were scored, to leave only two in contention. Both are double champions and are only separated by 15 points with 25 available for the winner when the final chequered flag descends on Sunday Evening on paper those 15 points seem like an insurmountable target and there will only be one possible outcome from this weekend. It would take a monumental effort to overturn the odds in this final race, but having Sao Paulo as the playing field for the titanic battle adds a huge dose of unpredictability. Some of that could be released from the skies as the forecast suggests that there may be some climatic intervention - which could be fun, very fun indeed.

In other news the future of HRT seems even more doomed than the prospects of sitting on the back of the grid in a car which may occasionally fall apart on impact, or lose the ability to slow down for corners. Neither of which are something to write home about, but on the whole progress has been non-existent since the team arrived on the grid in 2010, on a rare occasion being able to out-qualify a struggling Marussia but that was about it. But turning up to the start of the past two opening races and being painfully slow hasn't helped prospects and now the team is up for sale. As if they've officially given up and want to pass the organisation onto somebody else, whoever that turns out to be is going to need a significant amount of funding to do anything with the squad. I've looked behind the sofa but not sure that 28p and a button will make the cut somehow.

Then we come to the drivers and there are all kinds of thoughts that several of them will be missing next season, and the problems seem to start at Caterham - where no-one is safe. A 12th place finish for Marussia in Singapore knocked the green team out of the coveted 10th place in the constructors championship. A top ten result comes with a significant amount of bonuses, so losing it has consequences mainly in the budget corner - a lack of team funding means Heikki could be binned. Elsewhere Kobayashi's seat is under pressure from the money Gutierrez has at his disposal from Mexico, and Senna could be replaced by Bottas their reserve driver. But all of this will start to fall into place once the season has reached it's conclusion over in Brazil.

The Track

Credit to the FIA for the map

The Interlagos has been used to host the grand finale of the world championship on several occasions and brought with it some of the greatest conclusions to the series, including seeing Raikkonen steal the championship from the two McLaren drivers. Not from too dissimilar position as Fernando is approaching this one, and then we had Hamilton stealing the title from Massa in the final corner of the race when passing Timo Glock in a Toyota. So with that run of form there is great hope for this weekend to be just as enthralling and decisive.

Sao Paulo is one of the shorter laps of the season with limited run-off in places, forming a compact, atmospheric stadium to host the ultimate finale, something that is always missing from these massive scale newer circuits. Despite having a more technical middle sector containing three sequential hairpins, the track flows from one corner to the next covering a lot of undulation in the process including the steep descent through the opening sequence of corners - the Senna S. In the wet however the combination of the compact layout and height changes causes significant complications, in the form of streams of water crossing the track. For example turn three is a simple acceleration zone in the dry, but when the rain fell in 2003 lots of cars span off into the barrier on the outside, including Schumacher and reigning bonus points champion Jenson Button. 

Not much has changed since then, as with many tracks tarmac run-off has replaced some of the grass, but thankfully a grass border has been left at the side of the road to prevent people from gaining ground from running off course. One area that has seen some changes is the final climb from the exit of Juncao all the way to the finish line. Here there has only ever been a concrete wall on the exit of the quickest part of the lap, and in recent years local championships have seen some tragic accidents on that stretch of track. There have been plans to move the wall further back but that would require demolishing the grandstands and other residential buildings that are just behind it - which is a problem. This season the organisation running the track to take some inspiration from US oval racing where concrete walls are a constant threat - using something called the safer-barrier. The concept has been installed for NASCAR circuits for several years but has made its way here, it effectively adds a second layer of wall separated by compressible material that absorbs crash impacts. In America it has worked really well, so combined with barrier tech used in Monaco and Abu Dhabi (the stuff Rosberg ended up hitting in thr end of his flight) I think we'll be safe - even if a monsoon hits.

There is one more final entry to add to the list this weekend and that is the presentation of the final video of the season. Which is slightly sad, but these things happen to us all, and to make up for it we have a bonus point championship special, covering the eight remaining contenders for that all important title. Concluded by lots of driving into things and drawing some inspiration from a small animated sponge - it has everything. So here it is the video for the grand finale in Brazil, in full 1080p HD.

What to expect

Hopefully absolutely everything, madness, crazy nothing-to-lose moves and of course some very interesting weather. The forecasts indicate there is a lot of rain in the region the only question is when it will reach the track, and which sessions will be affected by the storms - now that is an exciting prospect for such an important weekend. However even though this race hosts the battle between Vettel and Alonso but it certainly won't be a single duel between the pair, because the McLaren drivers will be on the same pace along with the Lotus team to make things very interesting indeed. 

Additionally because this is one of the shorter laps of the season the gaps between the teams in terms of lap time will be smaller, allowing the mid-grid teams to get in on the action. Meaning that Sauber, Force India and Williams could be in for a very strong season finale capitalising on any contact and mistakes closer to the front. I wouldn't rule out a Toro Rosso for some major points either, the potential for this race to be completely mad is quite hight, especially if the predicted storms do set in a cause all kinds of mayhem.

It is this sort of race which those teams lurking at the back hope for, as it is in uncertain conditions where finishing further up the grid is much more likely than it is on an ordinary dry weekend on a long Tilke track. Although I don't think that even an impossible 1-2 finish for the HRT team will not be enough to rescue their dwindling hopes of making the grid in 2013. Even if they do turn up in Australia making the actual start is just as unlikely. But it is more important to the Caterham team looking to take the 10th place in the constructors championship away from Marussia, and the only way to do that would be finish ahead of any other cars in the division and vitally in 12th or above, which is where the rain might have to come into play.

The blog predictions

This is the final installation of the predictive phase of the post and something that probably won't make it back on to the schedule next season by virtue of being not being constructive to the content of the site at all. So for the last outing here we go...

1. Alonso
2. Hamilton
3. Vettel
4. Massa
5. Raikkonen
6. Webber
7. Button
8. Hulkenberg
9. Senna
10. Grosjean

Qualifying

• Red Bull - Vettel
• Ferrari - Alonso
• McLaren - Hamilton
• Lotus - Raikkonen
• Mercedes - Schumacher
• Sauber - Perez
• Force India - Hulkenberg
• Williams - Maldonado
• Toro Rosso - Vergne
• Caterham - Kovalainen
• Marussia - Glock
• HRT - De La Rosa

So there we go, the final weekend of the season has turned up and opens the door to bleak abyss that is the off-season on the other side, and abyss that is only postponed by the inevitable chaos that is the V8 supercar finale on the steets of Sydney which is generally fun. This race brings together the threat of rainfall and a field of drivers fighting for their futures so lots of things can and probably will go wrong and all we have to do is sit back and watch the carnage take place. Let the games begin.

Round 19: USA Review

Greetings Internet,

We have completed our return to the US rounded of with cowboy hats on the podium which is a nice authentic touch - and we do seem to have avoided a frightening bout of square-dancing as well. As to the race it wasn't too bad, on the surface we were not expecting an enthralling encounter fuelled by a massive quantity of unpredictability, the nature of the track was going to dictate that much in the same way that the Indian GP did. But Austin did out perform the Indian venue today where oddly the crazy 'stadium' section towards the end of the lap became the site of some fairly close racing running wheel to wheel only inches apart. Also this was the first race where the excessively wide apex zones actually played a part in deciding the outcome of some battles throughout the field.

In terms of the championship the result hasn't made too much of a difference as the status quo remains between Fernando and that German Bloke heading to Brazil - an arena build on unpredictability and surrounded by some very unstable weather systems. Looking back on the 56 laps of today's race I can see that the Austin Circuit will be on the calendar for several years to come, mainly due to the sheer size of the investment that has been piled into the track, but also through increased use across the year the dusty lines will be cleaner next time around. What will be interesting to see is how this race will work in conjunction with the potential arrival of the New Jersey street race planned now for an arrival in 2014, fortunately the extreme contrasts between the two events will segregate them from each other. America has a strange preference for street circuits so it was only a matter of time before one of those made it back onto the schedule. But that is a long way down the road, so lets examine the race that has just concluded.

image credit to F1Fanatic.co.uk

The Race

Things were starting to be altered before the cars had even left the pit-lane and took to the grid, because a devious plan was forming in the Ferrari garage, as they woke up this morning and realised they were on the wrong side of the grid. Additionally they noticed that Massa was in front - in Ferrari terms that almost amounts to treason and blasphemy so there was only one decision that was going to leave the garage pre-race. Massa had to be moved out of the way, so the team induced a penalty for Felipe by changing the gearbox dropping him to 11th, it moved Alonso up to 7th and onto the cleaner side of the grid. Very devious indeed...

As for the rest of the drivers, they decided that qualifying actually counts and started in the correct position. Off the line the disparity between the two sides of the grid was apparent as Raikkonen and Hamilton immediately lost places as Red Bull assumed a 1-2 lead through the opening corner. Alonso seemed to like his new starting place clearing the row of cars in front of time to make it into 4th place. Despite running close to five wide in places through the wider apex section there was no major contact, slight bumping at the very apex of the corner towards the back involving Kobayashi and one of the Toro Rossos. Further up Hulkenberg and Raikkonen were going through turn two side by side, brushing wheels in the process sending Kimi out wide - not to be outdone a Williams went even further out wide in the same corner.

The function of the fast section of sweeping corners on the opening lap is to convert a string of battling cars into a single file train towards the bottom hairpin at the bottom of the track. But on cold tyres the cars were sliding all their way through the sequence Verge got all kinds of sideways behind One-Stop Perez and just ahead of Jenson who lost places as a result of being on the wrong side of the grid at the start. Also having a bad day was Schumacher demonstrating that the pace of the car in qualifying was well beyond the race pace of the team as a long queue was starting to form behind him. First in that line was the Force India of Nico Hulkenberg followed by both of the Lotus cars - Nico didn't spend too long behind the Mercedes leaving Raikkonen to deal with the slowing German. The problem in this case was as it has been elsewhere - Lotus don't have the same top end speed to make full use of the DRS system. Once the DRS was activated Raikkonen was able to draw alongside with Schumacher but it was on the outside, interestingly Grosjean had gone to the inside and passed both cars in one move.

Up front Vettel was once more vanishing again but Hamilton was attacking the second Red Bull of Webber to take second place, on his first attempt Lewis ran too deep down the inside at the end of the back straight allowing Webber back through. It didn't last long as on the next lap Hamilton repeated the move but was able to hang onto the place without running out wide. Schumacher was having more difficulties with an ever growing train of cars lurking in his mirrors, now headed by Di Resta and Felipe Massa. Further down the queue Jenson was mounting a recovery drive duelling with the two Williams cars outside of the top ten in 13th place. With the Toro Rosso team also in the mix it was getting a little fraught and on a European track might have ended up with several cars in the wall missing wheels. But here there was enough space and enough skill for drivers to run side by side through the stadium curves towards the end of the lap.

The image of control and precision sort of fell apart as the camera cut to Grosjean sitting pointing the wrong direction on the exit of turn 19, loosing the car on entry to the corner and sliding out across the run-off. Romain was able to get back into the race, but lost several positions falling away from his battle with Hulkenberg. Jenson passed the struggling Lotus before heading after Schumacher in a moment of convergence where a car going forward met one going the other way. Michael was able to fend off the challenge through the DRS zone but coming onto the front straight Button was able to go to the inside. Schumacher defended the position pushing Jenson further across the track... and then some more...if Michael had pushed Jenson any further not only would he end up in the pit wall but would be on the verge of being forced across the border into Mexico. Jenson survived the squeeze to take away the position from the Mercedes and drove away into the distance. Within a few laps Schumacher had his team-mate and Vergne for company which got rather close through the stadium phase, where Vergne ended up venturing off the track. Somewhere along the line there must have been some contact as Vergne retired with damaged suspension at the start of the next lap.

Back somewhere near the front Raikkonen was back on the case of the car that nudged him off on the opening lap, Kimi cut back on the inside of the Force India on the exit of the first corner placing him once more on the outside of turn two. In a carbon copy of the opening lap the two cars raced inches apart through the corner but Raikkonen had the advantage and made the pass before the following sequence. Then all too familiar radio call went out to Webber's Red Bull informing him that his KERs had failed...again, it always seems to be that side of the garage with KERs issues. But this was a precursor to a much bigger problem as the cursed Red Bull alternator failed once more putting an end to Webber's race, and causing a fair quantity of concern on the pit wall.

It was time for the one and only pit-stop phase of the race lead by Hamilton with an impressive 2.4s stop, Ferrari couldn't respond with a slower stop surpassing 6s after a delay on a rear wheel. Raikkonen stayed out and injected himself into the centre of the battle for the lead between Lewis and Vettel, but on older tyres had no defence against the McLaren behind. Jenson was also staying out and found himself behind Alonso's Ferrari a position which didn't remain there for long as Fernando effectively let the McLaren through rather than losing speed fighting a car on an alternate strategy. When Raikkonen made his stop there was also a delay in the Lotus garage removing the change of getting the car ahead of Alonso and onto the podium. Instead he was in the firing ling of Massa and Ricciardo - who hadn't stopped by this point.

Once the stops had cycled through there was the generic lull where not too much goes on, Vettel had sufficient lead while being closed down gradually by Hamilton's McLaren - trimming tenths off to make it into the DRS window. The gap was brought down significantly as the pair negotiated their way through some traffic - a moment in the race that proved pivotal as Lewis was able to break into the key 1s deficit window. The only other track action came from the other of the two McLarens as Jenson worked his way back after his stop making it through past the Lotus of Grosjean. Massa was able to get around the other Lotus of Raikkonen through turn two - Kimi had spend a lot of laps duelling someone there, but this time lost out to the Ferrari. This meant Massa was now one place behind Alonso - which probably wasn't good for his career options, Felipe was binned down the grid for out-qualifying Fernando, so being anywhere near him one the track would get him kicked off the flight to Brazil entirely.

Right at the front of the field Hamliton was now very close to Vettel close enough to use the DRS to power past on the back straight, which was followed by a scrambled whine from Vettel over the radio. It is claimed the vent was about Karthikeyan not getting out of the way quick enough and allowed Lewis to be too close. But it might have had something to do with the speed advantage the McLaren had making the pass a little easy on the slower Red Bull car. This sealed the podium, with Hamilton secure out front from Vettel and Alonso in a world of his own, and behind him Felipe is under constant instruction not to be in the same region as his team-mate. Therefore we have to look a little further back for some competition where we find Raikkonen and Button engrossed in battle, it was clear the McLaren had the advantage and was a matter of time before Kimi was defeated. The pass finally came on the exit of turn 12, while Kimi defended the inside Jenson stayed alongside before taking the inside of the next corner.

With the race winding down there were few battles remaining on the track, none of them inside the top 8, as we had to look back to the bottom end of the points where the two Williams drivers were running in close attendance behind Nico Hulkenberg's Force India. Bruno Senna demonstrated the significant straight line speed of the Williams and drafted to the outside of Nico from a long way behind on the back straight. But he was unable to clear the Force India before turning into the corner allowing Hulkenberg to maintain position - the battle brought Maldonado into the equation through the remainder of the sequence. The trio got very close in the final part of the stadium section as Senna brushed the rear of Nico's car narrowly missing on causing a puncture. Pastor asked the team if it was alright to have a go at his team-mate - the team said it was and the next thing we seen is Maldonado sending one up the inside of turn one banging wheels in the process. Not entirely sure that's what the team had in mind. Hulkenberg now had a different Williams getting very close to his gearbox for the remaining laps.

The race ended as Hamilton crossed the line to win the first race on the new Austin track followed home by championship leader Sebastien Vettel still unable to break too far away from Alonso's Ferrari who rounded out the podium. Massa came across the line in fourth, which is convenient as if they'd both been on the podium Felipe would need to receive his trophy in a separate room. Following the Ferrari pair was the recovering McLaren of Jenson Button having a strong race after running 16th on the opening lap. The two Lotus cars followed, lead by Kimi Raikkonen, Hulkenberg managed to hold of the challenges from both of the Williams to finish 8th, ahead of Maldonado and Senna rounding out the points. This means the championship battle goes down to the final race of the season in Brazil where Vettel has a 13 point lead from Fernando - and entertaining weather is predicted. Nice. Almost as nice as the Stetsons used as the podium caps, well played Texas, well played.

The Bonus points championship winners

There will be a lot of talk surrounding the world championship title in the next seven days before the crucial final race, and considering the constructors championship has already gone to Red Bull this season making it their 3rd title. However the bonus points championship is far more competitive with 12 contenders remaining before the start of this weekend - so the results of this race define who is still in with a chance when that grand finale rolls round.

• 25pts - Jenson Button - Recovering from 16th early on to finish 5th at the end of the race is a strong result with several passes along the way
• 18pts - Felipe Massa - After getting demoted down the grid by his own team to finish behind the other red car, a safe distance behind of course
• 15pts - Lewis Hamilton - The only car able to stay with Vettel today
• 12pts - Romain Grosjean - After spinning off recovering to be close to his team-mate and for passing two cars in the same corner
• 10pts - Vitaly Petrov - For winning the lower division of the grid for Caterham
• 8pts - Nico Hulkenberg - Survived some significant pressure from both of the Williams drivers at the end of the race
• 6pts - Kimi Raikkonen - Some great precision moves two wide through turn 2 several times
• 4pts - Texas - Well played indeed, race could have been better, but jolly good job overall
• 2pts - Fernando Alonso - Still on the podium - but was helped there through some dodgy tactics
• 1pt - Pastor Maldondo - The only driver to ask for permission before hitting his team-mate 

The penalty points championship

As there were no official penalties this weekend - although there is an incident between Kovalainen and Glock on the final lap being investigated which happened off camera - it is time to move onto the penalty points series and we have some additions to the table from this race.

• Ferrari - an obvious penalty point here for binning one of your cars to move another from one side of the grid to the other, sad really.
• Michael Schumacher - For virtually pushing Jenson Button through the wall and into the next state.
• Martin Brundle - For being a little more arrogant than usual on the grid and being well out of sync

Looking to the grand finale 

Well, well, well. Here we are after 19 races, some of which have been utterly spectacular with flying cars and madness, while others have been a little dull...cough India cough, we have come to this. 13 points separates the only two challengers in the main championship, not of course that it matters when the ultimate title of the second bonus points champion is revealed in little over a week from now. The stage for this grand finale is the frantic lap in Sau Paulo Brazil - something that doesn't look promising for Felipe. If he even as much as try to win on his home track and the Ferrari Mafia will lock him away with his own luggage, permanently. It is a track where anything can happen, where championships have been won and lost within metres of the line, the famous pass on Glock by Hamilton in 2008 is a perfect example.

It is also often complicated by the presence of some rain, because when it rains in Interlagos it can be very significant - the 2003 race was one of the most destructive in recent seasons when turn three washed up more cars than Hurricane Sandy. The race finished when Alonso hit the wheel of a destroyed Jaguar before plowing into the wall, despite being classified 3rd, missed the podium by virtue of a hospital visit. Kimi Raikkonen thought he won the race but on countback to the time the red flag came out it turned out Fisichella in a Jordan won the race. So if we could have another one like that it would be awesome - minus taking people away in an ambulance, had enough of that sort of thing with double tragedies in the support race action for the Macau GP coming into this weekend. So until the grand finale of Brazil this is farewell from the blog.

Round 19: USA Pre-race

Greetings Internet,

Well there we have it, the veil of secrecy that surrounds any new circuit has been cast aside as the Circuit of the Americas completed it's first qualifying session. From the the session this evening it can said that the track doesn't look that American - being composed of several elements from European circuits all jammed together to form something very interesting indeed. There were some notable differences from the simulated version used for the video earlier in the week - for example there is no crested breaking zone for the hairpin at the farthest end of the lap. Additionally the stadium section in the final sector is more disappointing than is seemed - the corners do come across as more irritating than the virtual version indicated. On the plus side the opening sector does look fantastic - the climb uphill to turn one is monolithic and the track widens so much at the apex you could race buses through there. The following section of corners does have some similarities to silverstone but this being America and all had been supersized with a few more corners and drenched in some rather patriotic looking tarmac.

One issue that came up through the driver's comments and general commentary was the general lack of grip there was offline - a likely consequence of the new track surface not being used before this weekend. Meaning that although there is a lot of space in the middle of the wider corner entrances the racing surface there will be too dusty and slippery to actually use for overtaking. The first practice session on Friday saw all kinds of powerslides and excursions off track - which unsurprisingly in this day and age does not contain too much grass or gravel - but acres of asphalt before reaching the barrier in places. You'd think with all these variables and a completely new venue presenting an unknown quantity for all concerned there might be a fluctuation in form, but no, the majority of the grid is a replica of Abu Dhabi give or take a couple of fluctuations where Red Bull and McLaren are out front followed by Lotus while Ferrari continue to struggle. So lets look at the first ever qualifying session from Austin Texas.

Image credit to F1Fanatic.co.uk

Qualifying

The US GP has been held at 10 different venues since Sebring in the 60's the majority of the events have been held on street tracks - as New Jersey plans to be whenever it is deemed ready, so competing on a permanent facility is a little of a novelty of sorts. Faced with some conservative tyre choices from Pirelli the patten of the session would be to stay out on track continuously to build up heat and grip across the session. The HRT cars were the first to venture out onto the track, who throughout the practice sessions hadn't been fast enough to be in the 107% window to make the start. No wonder the team are looking for buyers for the next season, with brake issues and a general lack of pace. So here is a thought - if the supporters of blog HQ have a couple hundred million lying around blog HQ could make it onto the F1 grid in 2013 with a team of bright yellow blogmobiles. Back in the real world now the track was getting busier as several more drivers took to the circuit. 

In the opening quarter of the session it was the Lotus of Raikkonen who lead - proving that two weeks on he still knew what he is doing - while the majority of the main runners hadn't left the garage. On account of the tyre selection being a little conservative teams were electing to change onto the medium compound tyres - which took Grosjean to the top ahead of the two Ferraris in second and third. Even by this stage there was no sign of that German bloke as Webber put his Red Bull up into second. The medium tyres pulled the Williams of Bruno Senna up to the top of the timesheets ahead of Grosjean and drew Di Resta into the top five. Vettel turned up and went third, fastest car on the harder tyre however.

But this opening session is all about who is going to get relegated, and it was no surprise to see it was a Torro Rosso sitting in that position ahead of the newer teams. However this situation changed when Ricciardo skipped out of relegation to drop Rosberg temporarily out of qualifying - but the Mercedes managed to reclaim the position - only just. The remaining laps of the session were compromised as Narain Karthikeyan's HRT broke down on the entrance to turn two bringing out the yellows and cementing the relegation places. One thing worth pointing out was that the entire Marussia team out-qualified Caterham which is a major anomaly.

Swiftly on to Q2 now and as with the first session Raikkonen set the early pace on his initial lap, ahead of Senna's Williams. This time Ferrari and McLaren went out earlier in the session and Button immediately put the car into second place behind Kimi. Fernando however was encountering difficulties caught up behind Schumacher on an out-lap - not the first time the Mercedes driver has been in the way of this season, not even this weekend causing difficulties for Hamilton in Friday practice. While Alonso was delayed the entire field was hit with a crushing blow of dominant normality from the German bloke - going fastest by a comfortable margin of 0.8s. The reverberating waves of power from Vettels lap must have carried themselves to McLaren disabling Jenson Button's throttle control and putting him out of the qualifying session. Increasing the amount of McLaren reliability problems costing them problems.

Because all the drivers needed to be out continuously throughout the session there was much less positional change throughout the field as the session wound itself closer to a conclusion. Felipe Massa was having a strong session in his half of the Ferrari garage, continually producing laps quicker than those of his championship contending team-mate. The stability of the grid at this stage helped Raikkonen who was very close to being relegated in tenth place, only tenths ahead of Bruno Senna just on the other side of the cut-off point. Senna tried to make it through but was unable to knock Kimi out of the final phase of qualifying. Having only just managed to escape Q1 Rosberg was cemented to last place in Q2, odd considering Schumacher was up in the top ten - but no-one was able to challenge the German Bloke out front.

With the remaining 10 drivers prepared for the final part of qualifying the competition for pole seemed to be a forgone conclusion - although that could have been said several races ago given the momentum Vettel and Red Bull have had recently. This time it was Schumacher who was the first onto the track only to set a very conservative time which was slower than any other timed lap of the whole session, even slower than HRT were in Q1. Both Ferraris followed the German out but neither of them completed a lap time worth writing home about - that left it to Romain Grosjean to set the first representative time to go fastest. But the Frenchman's time at the top was shortlived as first Webber and then Hamilton placed their cars at the front of the field.

After three quarters of the session had been completed only four reasonable lap times had been posted - none of which belonged to the all dominant Vettel but that was going to be changed, as the German bloke turned up and immediately went fastest. Hamilton came within quarter of a tenth of taking the provisional pole position away from the Red Bull driver, but what Lewis managed to do was split the two blue machines to prevent a front row lockout. On his subsequent run Sebastian moved the goal post a little further away from the McLaren driver, Hamilton tried to respond by the pole position belonged to Vettel once more. Lewis lines up second ahead of Webber in the Red bull, Grosjean qualified fourth but a gearbox penalty will put him 9th on the grid. Raikkonen assumes 4th place as a result starting alongside Schumacher's Mercedes. Massa starts 6th in the leading Ferrari with Hulkenberg in 7th place splitting the two red machines as Alonso starts 8th. Grosjean's penalty places him in 9th while the final place in the top ten goes to Pastor Maldonado.

The Bonus Points Championship points winners

From the inaugural qualifying from the extensive Circuit of the Americas the competition was understandably cautious as all the offline elements of the track are very slippery; it is time to release the first batch of points from the penultimate weekend of the season.

• 10pts - Michael Schumacher - for managing to drag the Mercedes up into 5th while Rosberg can only manage 17th place
• 8pts - Timo Glock - for out qualifying both Caterham drivers to take the lead of the bottom division of the grid 
• 6pts - Charles Pic - for also being able to defeat both of the Caterham drivers to help both Marussias lead the division.
• 5pts - Romain Grosjean - a strong performance despite having a grid position compromised by a technical penalty 
• 4pts - Felipe Massa - For defeating his team-mate across virtually all of qualifying
• 3pts - Lewis Hamilton - For coming close to cancelling out the Vettel domination today
• 2pts - Vitaly Petrov - For beating Heikki Kovalainen in the Caterham team
• 1pt - Vettel - Fine you can have a point for that.

Looking to tomorrow

Well it has been a long time since we've been racing in the US, and even then that was at the rather unimpressive infield version of the Indianapolis track. However I don't think in the opening year the racing will be all that impressive tomorrow either, because the track is too slippery and dusty offline to risk making any significant overtaking without a major speed advantage. We saw Grosjean get a little wide in the penultimate corner and had absolutely no grip in the final corner because of the lack of running that has happened offline. So this will foreseeably cause a problem throughout the race, possibly even in the DRS zone down the back straight - which might not be calibrated correctly for the opening event at the track.

What will be worth looking out for is the very start of the race, because the grid has a very definable dirty and clean split from one side of the grid to the other, all drivers on even grid slots will likely be very compromised if the drivers are to be believed. Some likening the dirty side to starting the car in the wet such is the lack of grip there, and even when they do get off the grid there is the small matter of the massive mountain of tarmac that leads into turn one. The only remote comparison is turn two at the formerly used A1 ring in Austria, but even that wasn't as steep or as tight. Giving the drivers a massive amount of space, most of it very slippery on the side of a very steep climb at the start of the race can cause all kinds of mayhem. So I don't expect the entire field to get through that without at least some wing damage and possibly some punctures in the process. The remainder of the race may not be up to too much especially with the conservatively hard tyres minimising degradation, but mistakes may be forthcoming by virtue of running ever so slightly wide in the faster corners of the lap. So until tomorrow this is farewell from the blog, when we will find out who are the final contenders for the all important bonus points championship.

Round 19: USA Preview

Howdy Y'all

But I'm going to knock that on the head before it starts, or my keyboard might end up wearing questionable shoes, large hats and dancing round in squares listening to country music. Because the newest venue has been unveiled in the big American state of Texas, which is famous for it's ranches and other old western cliches - kind of think I should be writing this up with a bottle of Sasparilla and shooting holes in the ceiling on the off chance it was feeling lucky. Dodgy stereotypes aside the Austin circuit is a completely modern facility specifically built for F1, like many of the other new tracks that have been erupting across the planet as Bernie perpetually wants to extend into new markets. However the states is not a new land for the series - we were last competing over there at the world famous Indianapolis motorspeedway, where the Indy 500 is held, but the infield track was for the most part pants. On the whole oval infield tracks generally are weaker due to the limitations of the outer track and the lack of undulation - but the Indy lap was a special case of dull plagued by two hideously pointless hairpins. On a first look the self proclaimed Circuit of the Americas is a massive amount better - and this time there shouldn't be 6 car races due to tyre failures.

During the two week break between here and the last chaotic race in Abu Dhabi not too much has happened in determining who gets to sit where when the contracts are completed before next season. But some hints have been dropped down at Sauber floating on, one would assume, a large quantity of money. As a rather influential investor in the team has implied that there will be two Mexicans on the grid next season, which would hint that Gutierrez is in the running to take Kobayashi's place in the team. Further upfront Vettel is rumoured to be secure at the team for the next five seasons, despite receiving some less than friendly comments from Jaques Villenueve - but the mad Canadian rants about most people so I wouldn't be too bothered about that. In the middle of the field Kimi's radio transmissions have become rather famous - the Lotus team have even printed T-shirts with "Leave me alone, I know what I'm doing" printed on them. Nice to see some people with a sense of humour, which wasn't the sort of responses the podium interview last time was met with, as complaints and fines were dished out at the end of such a mad race. But it is time to move on and look towards the US GP.

The Track

credit to the FIA for the map

On the surface it seems odd that America needed a brand new race track when the country has so many great tracks that would make for great races - makes you wonder how we ended up at Indy in the first place. With the likes of Road Atanta, Road America, VIR and Laguna Seca and many more available moving to Austin seems a little mad, but the problem is that these older tracks are built to fit the national championships and don't have the same safety standards that F1 requires. So that's why we have ended up here and the layout for the most part is a patchwork lap of stolen features from other tracks around the world, which in a sense is a little unimaginative, but on the other hand some of the new blank canvas tracks have been uninspiring Korea and Bahrain immediately come to mind. 

The track is bounded by three peaks, each one with a hairpin perched right on the crest, making the braking zones blind and complex, hopefully leading to a flurry of overtaking and contact. The bottom hairpin - turn 11 - on the map seems to have crest in the middle of the braking zone, which means the car goes light trying to slow down for the corner causing lock-ups and visits into the scenery. Of course that could just be a factor of the beta version of the layout used for the video this weekend, because that may have certain inaccuracies compared to the actual lap.

Then there is the matter of the stolen corners, sector one is mainly a replica of the maggots/beckets sequence from Silverstone - which can't complain there, because its a good sequence of corners and it means they get visited twice in a season. Further round the lap, the designers have tried to import the stadium section from the Hokkenheimring - which out of all the corners in the world to borrow also comes across as a little odd. To make matters worse the imitation that they have attempted is disappointing at best, it looks forced and clumsy on the diagram and on the virtual lap were dull. I thought we had escaped the crap double hairpin problem at Indy to gain something similar here... and we were doing so well up until that point on the lap. The final stolen element it a diluted version of Istanbul's turn 8, instead of the mega quadruple apexed monster in Turkey, this is a tri-apexed interpretation. The central corner of the turn is barely noticeable but it tightens for the final phase making the sequence its own - which worked at the beginning of the lap but failed in the stadium. 

When faced with a completely new venue unleashing the video is even more relevant, anything to boost audiences frankly - however the people at codemasters decided to release the new version of the official F1 game which contains the track. Therefore I don't exactly have any unique content, and the estimation of the track they have is probably more accurate than the rFactor one floating round the internet. Nevertheless it is brand new for the blogmobile and an exploratory voyage into the unknown, captured once more in full HD, which took three hours to add to youtube... but it was not like I had anything else to do.

What to Expect

As this is a new venue for all concerned I should open that question to the floor and sit back and watch the confusion but the lap doesn't demonstrate anything specifically quirky that would cause a major upset in the natural order of things. The quantity of aero-dependant corner sequences especially in the opening sequence of the lap will only help Red Bull continue the dominant pace they have shown in the final stages of the season. Something that doesn't bode too well for Alonso as the Ferrari's have been dropping back on single lap pace, unlike Abu-Dhabi this looks like a track which is more determined by car pace rather than driver pace. So therefore McLaren will be more of a threat to the blue machines than the Italian outfit, perhaps Fernando can pull some additional pace from the car is certainly plausible but to defeat the German bloke may be asking too much.

Just to make matters more complicated for the Ferrari challenge, the likes of Lotus and Sauber could well play a part in this race, based on their strong pace at Spa and Hungary which shares some characteristics with Austin. Conversely the same properties could hinder Mercedes even further - only serving to instil more confidence in the car Hamilton will be moving to next season as the silvers are surpassed by more of the mid-field on a race by race basis competing with Force India and Williams. Rosberg was even battling for position with the HRT he ultimately ran over at the early stages of the last race. As the middle teams become closer and more competitive any mistakes further forward guessing setup on in unfamiliar playing field could shake up the lower end of the points positions.

A problem that will not really affect the bottom three teams because they are not exactly in contention for some points, it would take a significant quantity of madness to take out enough cars to allow that to happen. From a purely neutral perspective I am all for that amount of madness, Abu Dhabi provided a decent amount of it, but a lot more will be needed to get Caterham on the board, and if HRT get a point that achievement would almost hand them the bonus point championship - and if that isn't incentive enough I have no idea what is. However the little team at the bottom of the grid seem to be looking for buyers and investment to make it to the 2013 grid, so we'll wait and see on that front.

Blog Predictions

After cars coming from the pit lane to the podium, and sporadic safety cars - trying to make any kind of prediction completely fell apart last race, and this time in a new environment with no historical data to work off the chances of scoring any points are even more limited. 

1. Vettel
2. Hamilton
3. Alonso
4. Webber
5. Raikkonen
6. Button
7. Grosjean
8. Massa
9. Perez
10. Hulkenberg

Qualifying

• Red Bull - Vettel
• Ferrari - Alonso
• McLaren - Hamilton
• Lotus - Raikkonen
• Mercedes - Rosberg
• Sauber - Kobayashi
• Force India - Hulkenberg
• Williams - Senna
• Torro Rosso - Ricciardo
• Caterham - Kovalainen
• Marussia - Pic
• HRT - De La Rosa

This weekend is a big step into the unknown, we have no idea how the track is going to perform or how the racing is going to play out as there have been no support races before this weekend to gauge whether the raised hairpins work as a concept. In the blogmobiles I was lapping in around 1:44s which is traditionally 10s off the pace off the actual times. So on that basis I can roughly estimate that laptimes will be somewhere around 1:30-33s across the weekend, and we'll see how close that guess comes when FP1 starts tomorrow afternoon. A new track always brings a large amount of anticipation and excitement, so I can only hope that the Circuit of the Americas lives up to that to produce another thrilling instalment in this late stage of the championship.

Round 18: Abu Dhabi Review

Greetings Internet,

Well, well, well - frankly we needed something like that to take place after two fairly dull races by comparison to the rest of the season, and considering the outlook for the race wasn't too promising the outcome was very impressive. It was a very similar story back in Valencia - comparisons were even made between the two track - we had a race peppered with the safety car, and decided by more mechanical failures. As soon as the lights came up and night began to fall the madness started to begin, and here at blog HQ, we like madness something that fits in with the general ethos of this part of the internet. Plans were set in motion for today's entertaining race last night, in the stewards room, because that German bloke - the one who keeps winning was demoted. Sending him to the very back of the grid in 24th place, a mile away from the 3rd place the car was supposed to line up at the start. It turned out that after stopping the car at the end of Q3, the car was deemed to be in violation of a fuel infringement - the same thing that got Hamilton excluded in Spain.

This lead to an interesting prospect, where the championship leader was a long way down the grid and his main rival was sitting in the top 6 - poised wonderfully, and the rest of the race certainly disappoint. It does strike me as a little odd that the two most enthralling races of the season have occurred on tracks where overtaking is considered minimal and the initial prospects on the night before haven't been too promising - it was the same thing with Hungary last season. Texas does have a lot to live up to in the coming fortnight, something that the blog will certainly be looking forward too on the basis of today's race.

Image credit to F1Fanatic.co.uk

The Race

In the light of Vettel's grid penalty the team elected not to pull the car up at the back of the grid for the race, instead they opted to start from the pit-lane with a view of avoiding any opening lap contact at the start. This also allowed Red Bull to make adjustments to the car and lengthen the gears to accommodate the DRS, which being behind everyone was going to be important, so all in all was a good call. The German bloke was soon joined at the bottom of the pit lane by Pedro De La Rosa whose car didn't get away off the line for the formation lap and would also start from the pits.

Everyone else lined up in order - readjusted for the Vettel penalty - ready for the start of the race, starting at the short run from the line down into turn one. It was a run that seemed longer for Webber as he got off the line a little slower that he would have liked, losing a position to a fast starting Raikkonen on the inside. Hamilton was clear and safe out front and unopposed into the first corner. It turned out that starting from the pits was the safest idea as the two Force India's got together trying to fit four wide before the corner. Bruno Senna tried to steer around the damaged car of Hulkenberg but got span round on the run-off and was able to continue - Hulkenberg however was out. On the exit of the corner Button and Massa ran two wide through the sweeping corners before Jenson took the place into the chicane - you'd think if the previous races were anything to go by we would be settled for the race now; not this week.

Only half way round lap one Grosjean and Rosberg tried to fit two cars through the turn 8 chicane - inevitably there was contact as the Mercedes front wing clipped Romain's front tyre. So at this point we had Di Resta, Grosjean and Rosberg all trundling round with damaged cars heading to the pits. More free places for Vettel who was scything past the lower end teams, two at a time in places down the straight, sometimes a little too optimistic - trying to pass a recovering Senna and Charles Pic before turn 8, as a result Vettel became the second car to hit the back of Bruno's car trimming parts of his front wing in the process. Which lead to Adrian Newey to stare at the spare wing in the pits as it was brought in an out of the garage. At the same corner Alonso and Webber demonstrated how it should be done, leading to the pair running two wide down the straight rather close before Alonso swept round the outside to take the place.

A moment of weakness from Hamilton at the front of the race, as he ran wide in turn 8, where all the action was taking place in the opening laps of the race, which would move a little further down the track later on in the race. Raikkonen had a look at capitalising on Lewis' mistake but was unable to pass the McLaren, and Hamilton was able to drive away from the Lotus in second while everyone else was catching up to the back of Maldonado in third. Back on Vettel watch and the German took two more places from Petrov and Glock in the same corner - clearly all those additional wing elements didn't make too much difference to the speed of the car moving up into 14th place. A progression which was being helped by Schumacher who was backing up a queue of cars in front of the German bloke.

The camera then cut to a scene of devastation, shards of carbon fibre everywhere and a single lone wheel rolling to a halt, buried in the far barrier was the Mercedes of Rosberg with a broken HRT in the middle of the corner. Several replays later and a picture of the accident fell into place. Nico who was out of position from early wing damage, caught Karthikeyan mid corner before the hotel. Caught out be the speed difference between the two cars Nico crashed into the back of the HRT and went up and over the car to quite a height. His rear wheels straddling Narain's head in the flight, the right rear hitting the chassis in a similar place to where Grosjean hit Alonso in Spa. Both drivers were able to climb out of their ruined cars, while the safety car was called into action.

It had been a hectic start to the race, so perhaps under the safety car things might be a little more controlled. Well apparently not, as Daniel Ricciardo's tyre warming strategy on the back straight seemed a little too erratic for Sebastien Vettel who had to take avoiding action to miss the Toro Rosso ploughing through the DRS marker board, adding more damage to the front wing. The spare wing in the Red Bull pit garage was brought out again, and was sent back, and then brought out again to be applied to Vettel's car. That little piece of carbon fibre had covered more metres than Hulkenberg had done today, but the German bloke was down at the back again - although we were missing some cars by this stage, and crucially had made the mandatory tyre change in the process.

At the restart Hamilton lead away from Raikkonen and Maldonado, a little side from Fernando on the final corner allowed Webber alongside but was unable to complete the position. But the initial moves went once more to Vettel passing Di Resta and De La Rosa at the back of the train of cars before heading after Grosjean in the Lotus. After several laps of easily drafting past slower cars this was the first actual battle for Vettel as Romain was out of position following an early collision, Sebastien initially made the pass when running three wide with Timo Glock's Marussia. But the Lotus repassed him on the exit of the turn 8/9 chicane. Then we have the problem of the overuse of tarmac run-off space, it allowed Vettel to drive past off the circuit, and therefore had to relinquish the place, only to take it back again a lap later.

Were we now going to have some time to at least figure out what had been taking place so far, but as some of the replays filtered through the race took another stark development as the leading McLaren of Hamliton grinds to a halt. The second time mechanical dramas have taken Lewis out of a dominant winning position - therefore the lead was passed to Raikkonen who was pulling away from Alonso behind. It was Maldonado who was running out tyres and speed further back, having already see Fernando drive past in the DRS zone, Webber was on the attack. However as a result of not quite having the same speed advantage of the Ferrari - when Mark tried the same move he didn't quite clear the Williams on turn in and was pitched into a spin. It was Button's turn to pass the Williams and chose the inside of turn 11 compared to the other drivers and made the pass stick without contact.

Webber found himself behind Felipe Massa after the little spin, who was also falling back on wearing tyres, at the end of the second DRS section Mark was in position make a pass, and had on decision - inside or outside. Given how well the latter worked last time perhaps a different approach might have been better, but apparently not. Webber went to the outside and bumped wheels with the Ferrari and went out wide, on returning to the track Massa took avoiding action and clipped an inside curb throwing the car into a spin. Having survived two clashes Webber now found Vettel closing in behind running now in seventh place, as other drivers started to make their pit-stops. By virtue of stopping early Vettel was able to stay out as everyone changed tyres, but was faced with the prospect of running most of the race on the same soft compound set. At the end of the cycle the German bloke was in second behind Raikkonen and ahead of championship rival Alonso - which must have been a little disorientating. It was all quiet out front however, but not as quiet as Raikkonen wanted it to be, updates on the gap to Fernando were waved off as Kimi effectively instructed the team to shut up as he knew what he was doing and frankly didn't care too much.

After 30 laps of all kinds of contact and cars sailing through the air things did calm down a bit as the stops had worked their way through the field and the cars that were out of position had cycled further forward. For example Di Resta and Senna who were involved in the first lap crash, were running with Grosjean another opening lap victim in the middle of the points, alongside Webber who'd hit a few people as well. Of the group it was only Perez who hadn't made contact at some point in the race so far.  The problem was that Grosjean was leading the little train in the middle of the points and was there on virtue of making his tyre change on lap one after hitting Rosberg. This meant those tyres were very worn and the cars behind were quite a lot faster - forming a train that lead from 5th place, all the way back to Kobayashi and Schumacher at the far end of the top ten.

Looking at the speed of Grosjean, Vettel could see where his tyre life was going to end up as there were only 12 laps between their early stops, on that basis he decided it was a good time to come in - and in fact it turned into a very good time to come in based on where he was expected to rejoin. The timing sheet indicated Sebastien would rejoin in the middle of the Grosjean train, which may not have been too helpful - if only something was to happen to all those cars to slow them down. A thought which must have been telepathically communicated to One-Stop Perez, who was becoming a little impatient in the queue, as it is not something that is done all that often in Mexico. Therefore deciding to add to the amount of chaos the race had seen already - so lets try and break this little incident down

...It all started with Grosjean running wide in turn 8 allowing Di Resta go get a run on the Lotus down the next straight, pulling Perez along as well. Sergio braked round the outside of the Lotus and just kept going until he as also round the outside of the Force India of Di Resta. However he quite far alongside enough to complete the pass before the next chicane, and the two cars tried to get through side by side. Perez forced Di Resta off the track in the middle of the chicane and ran wide on the exit. This created a gap in the traffic where Grosjean positioned his car, which became a problem as Perez rejoined into the side of the Lotus and was turned around this ruined Grosjean's suspension on one side. Next in the queue was Webber and had nowhere to go when presented with a damaged Lotus in his way, as a result  he made contact with Romain and ripped the rear wheel off the car, with veichles stranded on the track it was time for the safety car again - cancelling out Vettels second stop.

It took a while to clear away the debris, and eliminated all of Raikkonen's lead, so how were things on the Lotus pit wall - Kimi was instructed to keep the tyres warm, and responded saying "Yes, yes, yes, yes. I'm doing all of that. You don't have to remind me every single time".  As it happened he did know what he was doing and drove away from Alonso on the second restart, while Fernando had Button and Vettel for close company in a duel for the podium. The fact Vettel was even in that category was impressive, if not rather lucky catching the two safety cars at the right time. A third victim of the accident that caused the safety car emerged as Schumacher was forced to pit with a puncture. While Perez was handed a 10s stop-go penalty for causing the crash and pushing Di Resta off for good measure.

With a fair few cars eliminated by this stage or running well down the order after surviving the various accidents everything seemed to calm down a lot and the race turned into a pressure based challenge rather than more madness. Because as Vettel was applying pressure to Button for third, Alonso was allowed to escape and begin the hunt for Raikkonen in the lead, several seconds down the road. The only other action elsewhere was Schumacher passing Vergne for 11th after replacing the flat tyre. Running under the radar was Kobayashi in sixth position one of the few mid-field cars that hadn't hit anyone or been involved with anything and was on for some points as a result. The attrition had also brought Senna into the points having been hit twice in the opening two laps, and in the remaining five laps had comfortable gaps to retain the positions.

Things were less secure up front, as Alonso was setting fastest laps and trimming the gap down to Raikkonen - aiming to get inside the DRS zone. It was much closer to between Vettel and Button - aside from Grosjean early on it was the first car the German bloke had trouble passing, but Jenson's defence couldn't hold against Sebastien and the Red Bull was able to get alongside on the second part of the back straight. Hanging on round the outside of turn 11 and took the place through the chicane - something that Perez and Di Resta didn't manage to sort out among themselves a little earlier. So Vettel was now on the podium from starting in 23rd from the pit lane, only ahead of Pedro De La Rosa's HRT, not bad when you look at it. Further ahead however Alonso was much closer to Raikkonen, only hundredths away from having the power of the DRS at his disposal.

With one lap to go it seemed the life had started to fade from Fernando's tyres as he dropped back from Kimi's Lotus and the gap remained as the Finn crossed the line to claim his first win since the comeback. Alonso followed him home, only to find Vettel was the next car across the line, so only pulled back five points in the run for the title. The fact that the two main contenders were on the podium nullified any advantage Kimi took for the win and falls out of the championship hunt. Back in fourth was Button, his lowest finishing position in Abu Dhabi ahead of Maldonado in a distant fifth. Kobayashi avoided everyone to take sixth place and possible help retain his seat at Sauber for 2013. Felipe Massa and Bruno Senna recovered from various incidents to finish 7th and 8th along with Paul Di Resta completing the train of cars who have had a rather interesting afternoon. And the final world championship point goes to Vettel's best friend at the moment Daniel Ricciardo.

At the end of the race Kimi was congratulated on the radio for taking Lotus' first win in the rebranded format and merely responded with the fact that this was his job after all - we've missed this level of hilarious apathy from the Finn in his absence. Even with the chequered flag having been waved to end the race, the madness continued onto the podium where DC's interview with Kimi was interesting and then Vettel joined in with the profanities and poured the rose water all over Coulthard  A crazed end to the maddest race of the season. All summed up in the following video:

The Bonus Points Championship Points winners

Well after a race with so many twists and incidents where on earth are the points supposed to be handed. So after much deliberation - mostly with myself since the cat wasn't contributing too much to proceedings, even after getting points in India - these are the results of the 2012 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

• 25pts - Sebastien Vettel - 23rd to 3rd including replacing a front wing was a brilliant performance, even though Button was the only tough pass of the day.
• 18pts - Kimi Raikkonen - More for the brilliant team radio than anything else, but a strong win with enough pace to hold off Alonso at the end
• 15pts - Fernando Alonso - Another very strong drive and a great lap one pass on Mark Webber
• 12pts - Bruno Senna - Spun round in the first corner and then hit by Vettel and still scores points think there should be some bonus points for that
• 10pts - Kamui Kobayashi - For being on of the few cars not involved with any of the accidents and contact going on
• 8pts - Paul Di Resta - Another driver with early damage making it back through to score some points 
• 6pts - Pastor Maldonado - First decent points score since the win back in Barcelona, and only one accident along the way not too bad. 
• 4pts - Narain Karthekeyan - Deserves some danger points after seeing a car sail over his head - would need to see the on-board from that shunt
• 2pts -  Nico Rosberg - For the extreme air time, lost points for a messy landing 
• 1pt -  John - for the outside broadcast of one of, if not the best race of the year so far, and also there was pie involved.

The Penalties Championship

Because Vettel's demotion to the back of the grid was a technical issue, there was only one penalty handed out following the incidents and accidents of the day, rather surprising considering the quantity of contact and investigations that were carried out. Webber for one evaded two penalties for the two incidents he was involved in mid-race. So it was only One-stop Perez who was penalised for the mad accident that took out Webber and Grosjean.

The penalty points championship

With so much action on track and generally a few seconds later continuing a little further off the track and occasionally finishing up in the barrier there was not too much to throw penalty points at oddly enough. The majority of the collisions were the simple matter of two (or more) cars trying to occupy the same space and not wanting to give in to the other, sometimes that leads to good racing, and other times wheels fall off. Speaking of wheels, the first penalty point goes to HRT, because Karthikeyan's rear wheel came off a little too easy and was only caught by the extensive run-off space the track has. It may turn out that the nose of Nico's car severed the wheel tether on impact, but still getting a penalty point. A second point goes to David Coulthard who has been complaining about the pit lane exit tunnel, which given the layout of the first two corners is a good and innovative solution. We don't want another dodgy exit like the one in Korea frankly. 

Looking ahead to USA

Next up is a completely new venue purpose built to join the F1 Calendar, taking over from India as the newest place to host a grand prix. Hopefully this track will be a significant improvement on the last one we used for the American GP, because oval infield tracks are never traditionally an optimal solution especially for an F1 event. What is odd is that there was a need to build a whole new circuit when the US has a plethora of existing tracks - some of which surprisingly are not ovals - which are actually rather good. America tend not to do purpose built tracks, holding a lot of races on street tracks, and if today was anything to go by - unleashing that level of insanity onto a street circuit with concrete walls very close is a recipe for disaster - and hilarity as well.

The images of the track and virtual representations again seems like a layout of two halves, with a very impressive opening sector based on Silverstone's maggots/becketts sequence which is a very promising sequence of corners. There is also some rather interesting elevation changes where the apex of the first corner is placed at the peak of the first climb, and several other blind turn in points. If only the rest of the lap followed suit, the final sector has tried to replicate the arena section of Hokkenheim and it doesn't look so good, a little too tight and clumbsy. But I only have access to an early beta of the track that was produced when the layout was first released a couple of years ago, so there may be inaccuracies and we will only find out when the cars arrive in two weeks time. So until then this is farewell from me here at blog HQ.