I'd enjoy so much to make it to this part of the weekend full of enthusiasm for a race well enjoyed, but it seems those days are fading fast, I'm not saying that this rendition of the USGP was an appalling waste of time by any means, because that would be wrong. But it seems like every weekend we are just watching the same race play out just set to slightly different backdrop the same groups of cars keep appearing next to each other race in race out. Webber finds himself with Grosjean, Alonso with Hulkenberg and Hamilton somewhere in the middle it is all a little repetitive, and of course none of this is happening within sight of the actual lead of the race. Today's race wasn't completely devoid of activity because the DRS was not overpowered, and almost well balanced I hesitate to say - and therefore there were some overtakes that might make it into the highlight reel. Miles better than those utterly soulless and defenceless passes we've been exposed to more often than not.
The most perceptive among you may have noticed that there was no post-qualifying update, and that was manly because I was unavailable at the time and only caught up with the coverage by 2am which as a little late to start writing a post. But in order to ensure that the points table remains valid bonus points will still be awarded, because the session still happened and people still deserve points. I might also add that assigning points on Saturday was a lot easier than the task of finding enough points winners for the main event.
The Race
Based on the excitement of 2012, and the rearranged grid we had following a bunch of penalties handed out before the race to Gutierrez, Button and Chilton along with poor grid slots for Rosberg, Massa and Jenson again - it looked oh so promising. We also had a clean and a dusty division on the sides of the grid which could lead to some interesting combinations of drivers and positions into the first corner, more plus points. But the start of the pre-race parade lap roughly summed things up - the car Jenson was riding in broke down, and as Rosberg's driver tried to pick him up he almost rolled back into Perez.. But eventually Button hitched a ride with Alonso - and was not penalised as Webber was in Singapore.
At the real start there will be no points for guessing that Vettel arrived at the first corner first, and also no secondary prizes to guess that Webber lost places - to Grosjean and to Hamilton. Further back in the field Button managed to complete his hat-trick of damaging a front wing on the opening lap we think it was on the back of Felipe Massa's car at the top of the mountainous first corner. Everyone was being all too well behaved, now if we want that to change we look to Pastor Maldonado who has been on an almighty tirade against the team this weekend. On the back straight however it was the Venezuelan that came under attack from Adrian Sutil in the Force India. Sutil moved across seemingly oblivious to the Williams and turned himself into the inside barrier shedding parts and pieces of his car in the process bringing out the safety car. Which for once didn't have to wait for a quarter of a century to allow lapped cars to catch up, although it is odd that Vettel hadn't lapped anyone yet.
On the restart, normal service resumed where that German Bloke vanished off into the distance and like the past seven races, was never seen or heard of again. Grosjean was sitting in no-mans land in second unable to catch Vettel but protected from Webber by Hamilton. Lewis was starting to have a bit of bother from the second of the Red Bull's - Saturday clearly demonstrated that the blue cars have more than enough of a pace advantage over anything else. Behind this lot was a rather long train of cars, lead by Hulkenberg and Perez - stretching to Jean Eric Vergne in around 15th place. Maldonado was removed from this train after being forced to pit for a damaged wing following the lap on shunt. However in this era of tyre management - each of the cars in the queue were sitting about 1.5s apart from each other. Outside of DRS range and not to suffer too much in the turbulent air.
The one thing that could disrupt this stagnant state of affairs was tyre degradation, this being the specific sort of situation Pirelli's magically disintegrating tyres were designed to intervene in. Hamilton was starting to find this out as his tyres were less than healthy giving Webber an additional advantage. An advantage that became abundantly clear as the Australian was able to brake down the outside of the Mercedes without any resistance whatsoever. And so on lap 13 the top four positions were settled. kind of explains a lot really. As Mark eased off into the distance Hamilton's mirrors became full of the Sauber of Nico Hulkenberg who'd broken away from the front of that train of cars he was running, however the gains were only gradual. Which gave Hamilton plenty of time to tell his engineer off for keeping him informed, only later in the race to complain that his engineer wasn't giving him enough data... make you're mind up Lewis
Looking back at Raikkonen 2.0 (Heikki) and a difficult start had placed him outside the top ten behind a battle involving Ricciardo and Rosberg, for the final championship points places. Heikki ducked out the battle for some new tyres hoping to leap-frog the cars in front - Rosberg sensed this strategy and needed to get past Ricciardo to defend against the Lotus. The best opportunity was at the end of the long back straight, and Nico came from miles back to throw a lunge down the inside and make the pass stick. Daniel tried to retake the place but it belonged to Rosberg. However the plan failed because when Ricciardo and Rosberg pitted they rejoined behind Kovalainen who had also claimed a place from Di Resta at the same time duelling through the first two corners. Gaining three places by stopping a few laps earlier - but that additional tyre wear might come back to haunt him.
Unlike most races this season where teams were attacking all kinds of different strategies, everyone was following a similar approach, except Vergne who became the only car out of sync - and to a lesser extent Gutierrez who pitted on lap one for damage. Therefore these were the only two cars which were remotely out of position and in with a shout of interfering with any of the front running cars. Interestingly both of them ended up in front of Sergio Perez, who after being fired by McLaren was still the fastest driver in the team - this Magnussen chap needs to be rather quick to justify replacing the Mexican. Vergne was attempting to hold off both of the entrants from south of the border in the worlds fastest Mexican stand off. But his tyres were losing their life and Gutierrez managed to slip past at the end of the main straight. The time Perez was trapped behind the Toro Rosso allowed Alonso to jump the McLaren as the Ferrari rejoined. Fernando then followed that up with a pass on Esteban on the exit of the first corner.
Back with Raikkonen 2.0 and it was all going a little pear shaped with some mysterious loss of downforce issue seeing the Finn lose places to Di Resta and then to Rosberg's Mercedes. Heikki had to then pit for a new nose section to correct whatever ailment that was crippling the Lotus. Rosberg then took the place from Paul's Force India even though neither were presently in the points, not a grand day for Nico really. At the other end of the spectrum was Williams' driver Valtteri Bottas, after a fantastic qualifying session the Finn was still in the points showing strong pace during the race. Esteban Gutierrez was his next target and Bottas made the pass round the outside of turn two cementing the position into the start of the fast series of chicanes, very impressive.
Checking in on the front of the race and something strange was happening between Grosjean and Webber, Mark blatently had a faster car and could close the gap at will, but was unable to pass. So after a couple of laps of pressuring the Lotus, he'd back off and just drop away from the back of Grosjean's car. Then a few laps after that he closed the gap again repeating the cycle - while the pair were actually catching Vettel, of course a lot of that would have been Sebastian just driving extremely gently around the track to bring the car home. The only unresolved battle was between Alonso and Hulkenberg a battle that seems to have arisen several times in the recent races. This time the Sauber was far from the unpassable force it has been in other events - most notably in Korea. Fernando had a strong pace advantage trimming seconds off Nico's lead - and using the same strategy he employed in the inaugural race in Austin got a better exit off turn one and took the place.
The final phase of the race was very subdued with little chance of any positional changes especially towards the front, not quite the same further back where Gutierrez was trying to emulate what Hulkenberg managed last race - passing a pair of Toro Rossos. But this time he'd have to pass them one at a time, which didn't work out so well. Esteban threw the Sauber down the inside at the first of those awful hairpins after the long straight. He tried to ease Vergne wide to claim the place, but JEV wouldn't budge and contact was made, the speeds are low there so Esteban was just span off to the outside and rejoined. Then further up front Alonso was running into tyre difficulties and thus allowed Hulkenberg to catch back up and attack for 5th place. Nico went up the inside into turn one but Alonso countered the pass on the exit and reclaimed the spot and held it to the end of the race. This being the final lap there wasn't much of that race left.
Vettel claimed another win, not quite in such dominant fashion, but I assume if he was allowed to he would do so, Grosjean held onto second place with another impressive drive - no-one else can compete with Red Bull right now. Webber rounded off the podium in third place, with Hamilton in a distant 4th place. Alonso held off Hulkenberg to claim 5th ahead of the Sauber driver, the fired Perez scored points for McLaren today in another impressive drive. But in 8th place, tripling Williams' points haul was Valtteri Bottas beating the likes of Button, Rosberg and Massa while Maldonado had an abysmal weekend. Rounding out the top ten was Rosberg in 9th and Jenson Button in 10th.
The Bonus Points Championship points Winners (Qualifying)
Because I was slightly preoccupied with the events in central Durham on Saturday I did miss the opportunity so assign bonus points for Qualifying but here they are:
- 10pts - Valtteri Bottas - Completely annihilated Maldonado and got a Williams comfortably into Q3 without inclement weather conditions like Canada
- 8pts - Sergio Perez - On the weekend he has been turfed out of McLaren to out-pace Button consistently and also make it into Q3
- 6pts - Esteban Gutierrez - Despite horrific display of driving in Q1 made it two Saubers in the final part of qualifying
- 5pts - Heikki Kovalainen - First time back in a quick car in a long while and placed the Lotus within 6 tenths of a superbly performing Grosjean
- 4pts - Romain Grosjean - Again the closest thing to the Red Bulls
- 3pts - Fernando Alonso - For making what seems like an awful Ferrari perform well
- 2pts - Pastor Maldonado - Deserves a couple of points for not wiping Gutierrez out at the final corner because that was silly.
- 1pt - David Croft - For suggesting that Vettel listens to Rammstein to set things up for the session
Bonus Points Championship Points Winners (Race)
Now for the points for the events that took place today:
- 25pts - Valtteri Bottas - Tripling Williams points in a single event on a day when the other car was miles off the pace - and for that pass on Gutierrez
- 18pts - Romain Grosjean - Once again immensely inpressive beating one of the Red Bulls and holding the position under pressure, and for wearing the hat in the press conference
- 15pts - Nico Hulkenberg - The Sauber is again duelling with Alonso while Gutierrez hits Toro Rossos outside the points
- 12pts - Sergio Perez - Stating to score points on a regular basis, just as he is fired from the team
- 10pts - Fernando Alonso - In a race were Ferrari were poor still maintained pace during the race
- 8pts - Sebastian Vettel - Another victory and some more points.
- 6pts - Jules Bianchi - For winning the bottom class of cars when Caterham have conventionally been the team to beat back there.
- 4pts - Jenson Button/Nico Rosberg - The only two drivers from outside the top ten on the grid that scored some points today.
- 2pts - Mark Webber - For a great pass on Hamilton early in the race
- 1pt - Red Bull - For putting the IT guy on the podium, power to the nerds...
The Penalties Championship
The stewards had been busy this weekend and these were there decisions:
- Max Chilton - Drive Through Penalty - Issued after qualifying because the Marussia is a slower car than the Williams and a Force India and got in the way... apparently. Folk would be more livid if he'd move offline and hit someone...
- Esteban Gutierrez - 10 Place Grid Drop - For being a fool in Q1 almost wiping Maldonado out in the final corner, weaving randomly in the braking zone.
- Jenson Button - 3 Place Grid Drop - For overtaking under red flags in the farce that was the first practice session
- Jean-Eric Vergne - 20s Post race time penalty - Was for some reason given a penalty for being hit by Gutierrez which makes no sense whatsoever, sometimes I wonder.
The Penalty Points Championship
There are some other contributions that need to be made in this table:
- Pirelli - For not brining the Stetsons onto the podium, most disappointing, poor show
- The Stewards - What in the universe is going in there sometimes
- Pastor Maldonado - Has frankly been a bit of a prat this weekend, complaining about the team and theories about car sabotage is bang out of order.
- Lotus - As much I do like Kovalainen passing over Valsecchi seems, well wrong - it is only the remotest chance that they'd defeat Ferrari or Mercedes in the constructors anyway.
So onto the Grand Finale
Well this time last season we actually had a championship left to fight over, and this time there is nothing close, even all the mid-table battles are spaced out enough to ensure that there is very little for anyone to fight over. But hopefully Interlagos can provide what has been missing from so many events this season - an actual race. Of course that might mean we require some rain and some chaos - I'd like some chaos and mayhem to round of this season. And frankly these 2013 cars no longer have a lifespan after that race so a few of them could get banged up a bit. I reckon there is a lot of people on the grid, who've waited for this season to be over for a while now and maybe 2014 will offer something a little better. So until then farewell from Blog HQ.
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