In some respects it is rather unfortunate that the race was as entertaining as it turned out to be - what we needed was a clear message that the sport suffers by not having Marussia and Caterham on the grid. Alas we were presented with a race which did have it's dull moments - pretty much the entirety of the middle stint fell into that category - but on the whole was a solid evening's entertainment. Frankly I am amazed that there were no enforced pit stops for front wing changes because the lunges were flying in from all angles - mere millimetres from contact at times. Of course in other cases the contenders were not quite so fortunate - and one argument is going to roll on for many hours as the stewards deliberate. I suspect Lotus will be supplying Grosjean's disgruntled face while holding a shard of his damaged car as evidence at the stewards enquiry.
Addition to the shenanigans down the field the final result in Austin has left us with only two championship contenders - well in reality there were only ever going to be two. But now it is a mathematical certainty eliminating every other member of the grid - leaving Nico and Lewis in a two race sprint to the drivers title. On the evidence it seems like that particular fight is also pretty much a foregone conclusion, for several races now - including this one, the internal fight has been a little limp. Nico made crucial mistakes in Monza and Russia, then in Suzuka and Texas the grand battle came down to one pass. Two or three seconds of the cars on a similar piece of road and then it was done - although that shared piece of road occupied a lot less space this time round.
The Race
The grid was looking a little sparse as only 17 cars were sitting on the grid - with four cars back at home and one waiting in the pit lane. This did make negotiating the first corner a little easier as there was more space to play with - we probably could have got the entire field side-by-side through the acres of tarmac at the top of the hill. Both Mercedes cars made safe and equal launches away from the grid - while the two Williams' swapped places, Massa forcefully took the spot from Bottas and Alonso almost followed his former team-mate through but Valtteri was having none of that. Ricciardo lost a bunch of positions off the line - but recovered a few of the round the outside of turn one. The remainder of the opening lap wasn't quite so well behaved - towards the end of the lap - in the angular stadium section Sergio Perez made an overly optimistic lunge. The Mexican drove into the back of Raikkonen's Ferrari and then clattered into Adrian Sutil's high flying Sauber - so much for their chance at some points... The safety car was deployed to clean up debris and recover the ruined Sauber - somehow Raikkonen's car kept running.
During this safety car period several drivers at the tail end of the field took to the pits to get rid of the softer, less durable tyres for the more resilient compound. Vettel pitted twice considering he was last anyway - once to put the softs on, and then once to take them off again thus completing the obligatory stint on both tyre variations. It was a strategy ploy that didn't seem to make too much sense and in the end didn't really influence the end result of the race.
At the restart Bottas attempted to retake 3rd from Massa while the two leaders vanished up the road. Ricciardo made a more successful attack on Fernando Alonso almost wiping out Bottas in the process, and for the second consecutive green flag lap Fernando found himself edged wide on the exit of turn two as a car sailed down the inside. Despite making a terrible start, Daniel was now in exactly the same place in which he started, behind the Williams pair. A couple of laps later there was more wheel to wheel action - this time between the McLaren teammates, Kevin Magnussen was being rather forceful with Jenson in turn one forcing Button off the road and taking the place in the process. While this was going on a raft of investigations were announced from race control - all centred around issues of speeding under the safety car, Button, Vergne, Maldonado and Gutierrez were all accused and all except Button were handed 5s pit lane penalties. Could this be the first step in the stewards finally paying attention on car speeds in yellow conditions.
While Rosberg and Hamilton were running their own race out front - it was the opposite end of the points where the racing was a little more feisty. Grosjean was waging war against Jean-Eric Vergne who refused to give up - firmly closing the door on the Lotus driver as one Frenchman tried to pass the other. If only this level of contact-less duelling would be maintained throughout the race between the two... but we'll come to that in a little while.
It was now pit stop time and the initial round of stops rearranged the running order even more than the spate of stops during the safety car intervention. One of the key beneficiaries in this round was Daniel Ricciardo - having caught up to the back Valtteri Bottas the Australian pitted one lap earlier and used the fresher tyres to leapfrog ahead of the Williams driver. Bottas fought hard to take the position back once the two cars were on track together - but for once the Red Bull had just enough speed in a straight line to prevent Vatteri from drafting past in the DRS zones. The Finn had so much more mechanical grip from the softer tyres but that only really came into effect in parts of the racetrack where passing becomes too challenging. At the front Rosberg had gained a little through the pit sequence, but Lewis requested a front wing adjustment and was now quite a bit faster than his German team-mate. Speaking of Germans it was becoming an increasingly worse day for Force India as Nico Hulkenberg was forced into retirement through engine failure. Out of the three teams that threatened to walkout 50% of their drivers were now out of the race.
Hulkenberg's retirement came at the same time as Alonso's overtaking manoeuvre on Sebastian Vettel on the back straight. Fernando on fresher tyres than the Red Bull driver stealing 9th place. Round two of the French royal rumble was taking place outside the points as the pair found themselves behind Esteban Gutierrez in the remaining Sauber - the Mexican had no pace and was ahead through virtue of not stopping. Grosjean made the initial move and Gutierrez virtually jumped out of the way, allowing Vergne to follow through, JEV almost got Romain as well but the Lotus driver made sure there was no room for Vernge on the outside of turn 13. It could be said that it was now one all between the two Frenchmen in their on track duel, a duel that was going to need a more powerful final strike to break the deadlock. Jenson Button was also involved in a titanic battle with Fernando Alonso - like Vettel before him, Jenson was on older tyres than the Ferrari having pitted under the safety car. Button defended the initial attack in turn 12 but left the door open in the following complex. In a display of mutual appreciation, Alonso repaid the favour and ran wide in the corner after that giving Jenson the spot.
As one Briton was playing the defensive card, another was firmly on the attack - Hamilton now with more front downforce was carving into Rosberg's lead. A momentous Bahrain-esque battle was on the cards - or so we hoped - like in Japan the battle was one move and one move only. This time it was a decisive and definitive move with very little room for error. Nico didn't make it easy but Hamilton was coming through and wouldn't take no for an answer, the last time Rosberg resisted contact was made and the team rained holy hell down on the German. Rosberg could have resisted this time but it would have resulted in contact again because Lewis forced his team-mate off the road in turn 12. I hoped there would be a rebuttle, a surge of activity, but alas there was nothing of the sort. Once again hopes of a corner after corner and lap after lap of wheel to wheel action failed to materialise... maybe in Brazil then...hopefully... please...
It went a little quiet in the this middle stint of the race, but even in this phase of predominantly inactive racing there was still the occasional battle taking place. We saw Alonso finally get past Jenson Button and then continue on to round up Magnussen who put up less of a fight than he had in previous events. There was also Romain Grosjean getting stuck in again, this time against Sebastian Vettel. In fact this middle stint was not working out for the German Bloke - the car had no pace, constantly over a second slower than those cars around him and close to two seconds a lap slower than Ricciardo further up the road. There was a little confusion down at McLaren when Jenson was instructed to pit, and then immediately instructed not to pit, and then asked to pit again. Because Magnussen was in the lane when the initial call went out - Button, in a odd bout of chirpy sarcasm did ask the team if they were sure when the second call to "box" came through.
The second round of pit-stops also counted against Williams, in their battle with Ricciardo as the Australian had taken a place from Bottas in the first round of stops and had his sights set on Felipe Massa. Massa should have had enough of a margin to keep his podium spot but the Williams team performed a slower stop and gift wrapped the place for the Red Bull driver. Vettel and Alonso also had some fun when the Ferrari driver left the pit lane - and in this case it was Vettel who found himself on the outside of turn two. But Sebastian was far enough ahead to take the place. This sequence if stops brought the middle stint of the race to a conclusion and unleashed the grand finale of the US GP.
This finale centred around the McLaren drivers, initially it was Magnussen vs Vettel - Sebastian pushed way beyond the conventional braking point in turn 12. Locking front and rear wheels in an effort to shed speed and take the place on the inside, but his efforts were in vain as he skated wide giving Kevin the spot back. While Vettel regrouped - we take a look at Button's efforts, and it appeared the other McLaren had accrued quite the following, a train of cars was lining up behind Jenson Button. This train had Grosjean at the front of it and he was followed by fellow countryman, Jean-Eric Vergne - all aboard for round three of the French revolution. What ensued was a display of immaculate precision when Grosjean and Jenson interlocked wheels in turn 12 but managed to make no contact whatsoever. Further back in the queue Raikkonen was caught off guard by the Toro Rosso of Daniil Kvyat as the Russian took the spot in the middle of the 'stadium' complex. Jenson resisted everything that Romain could throw at him and it was a lot of pressure, but impatience was building further back... I hear the ringside bell announcing the final round of that face-off.
Jean-Eric Vergne threw the one and only punch, throwing the Toro Rosso at the side of the Lotus at the top of the mountainous turn one. Vergne came from a long way back and made sure he was coming through - contact was made, and sizeable contact at that. Vergne claimed the spot, but Grosjean was left with a car with damaged steering and less carbon fibre than he started the race with. Further round the lap, some of that carbon fibre became dislodged and ended up in Daniil Kvyat's front wing. Both cars were crippled in terms of pace, allowing Maldonado to take both positions. It also played into Vettel's hands who after a late stop was scything past cars at a relentless rate. But with Grosjean out of the picture Button had a new Frenchman to deal with, and Vergne had already proven he'd wasn't taking any prisoners. Fortunately for Jenson JEV was more subtle when making this pass in turn 12 but the move put Jenson out of position and Vettel bumped his way through in 13. Given his superior tyre grip Sebastian rounded up Vergne with ease and was able to chase down and pass Magnussen before the end of the race.
At the front Nico attempted to close the gap to Hamilton out front, but as soon as Rosberg took a chunk of time out of the lead, Lewis immediately responded with a personal best and repaired the damage. The lap time to and fro lasted until the end of the race as Hamilton drove another nail into coffin containing Rosberg's championship ambitions with another win. There appears to be nothing that Rosberg can do to stop Hamilton at the moment... Ricciardo completed the podium places in third ahead of the two Williams cars - Felipe ahead of Valtteri. Fernando Alonso clung onto 6th place by only half a second ahead of Sebastian Vettel. Magnussen claimed 8th place - and the final two places changed hands on the final lap when Maldonado made a characteristically mad lunge at Vergne. But Pastor had a 5s time penalty for pit lane speeding making the overtaking effort utterly pointless but tremendously entertaining.
The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners
From an entertaining evening of motor-racing with some marvellous passes and some very audacious lunges at the top of the mountainous turn one - and here are points from yesterdays race... considering it is now one in the morning... who needs sleep when there is the empty void of the internet to talk to.
- 25pts - Romain Grosjean - From the last spot on the grid almost into the points before the accident in a car that was woeful in qualifying
- 18pts - Jenson Button - Some fantastic duels with Grosjean and Fernando Alonso without making contact
- 15pts - Jean-Eric Vergne - Another feisty performance and one very bold move on Romain with three laps to go
- 12pts - Sebastian Vettel - From the pit-lane to seventh, mostly all in the final ten laps deserves some recognition
- 10pts - Pastor Maldonado - His first points of the season, and in a race with a lot of contact the Venezuelan didn't hit anyone
- 8pts - Felipe Massa - Finally struck back against Bottas who was comfortably beating the Brazilian recently
- 6pts - Daniel Ricciardo - Gets some points for another strong podium, and for not wiping Bottas out on the restart as that was close
- 4pts - Fernando Alonso - Has to have some points for his role in the battle with Jenson and his other duels with Vettel and Magnussen
- 2pts - Lewis Hamilton - The title is really Lewis' now, Rosberg has no answer to performances like that
- 1pt - Daniil Kvyat - Scores the final point for his pass on Raikkonen when the Finn wasn't paying attention
Looking ahead to Brazil
Well, there are only two races left, in a season in which the actual championship battle seems to be dying out - from the tense internal battles we saw earlier on to single corner events. Anything Rosberg puts on the table Hamilton simply turns up and beats - Nico scored pole on Saturday and Lewis walked away with the win.
So even if the championship is becoming more and more of a formality, the Brazilian GP often injects some excitement into the agenda mostly through the tropical climate in South America. Alas when we arrive in Brazil, I doubt we will be joined by Caterham or Marussia as the struggles continue there.
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