2013 - Blog HQ Round-up

Greetings Internet,

Apparently it is another year, which means there is another season waiting gently in the wings for the curtain to open in Australia. So I suppose on that note this might be a good time to brush the dust away from this corner of the internet and re-open Blog HQ for 2013. There was a plan to release a series of posts over the off-season before now but I got distracted by video games and lines that needed learning - and some more of those have been added to the list. Is not written 'there is no time like the present' so on that note welcome to the first thing to grace the internet since the championship presentation post in the long forgotten past of 2012 - which oddly didn't end in the feared Apocalypse. So what am I doing here with a spontaneous release from my darkened corner - well the answer is simple, things are afoot on the grid, comings and goings and questionable decisions. There has been a tide turning in this transitioning period from one year to the next, where being able to drive a car at any decent speed has increasingly little to do with getting a spot on the grid. In fact, anywhere from the mid-field down being decent is almost detrimental to maintaining a career in the sport. Before preparations get underway for the year - painting up the new blogmobile and things, it is time for a general catch-up of goings on during the winter.

credit to F1Fanatic.co.uk

The first new car

One of the first signs that the development wheels are slowly starting to slide into motion is the release of the first 2013 competitor - last season we saw Caterham and McLaren opening the schedule of releases. However this season it is Lotus who open things with the E21 - which bears a lot a similarities to its predecessor. One of the few cars that made the questionable stepped nose design work, so we can expect it to be downhill from here when the other teams pull back the covers on their challengers. There is a slight change in the livery and some refinement of the shape but some consistency in the regulations has ensured that no radical designs have sprung forth, but there is time for that theory to be disproved.

Silly season driver markets

We left the 2012 season with a lot of people having their futures in doubt, and in many cases those doubts have been confirmed - Kamui Kobayashi, one of the blog favourites has been officially booted out. Replaced by a lot of money that happens to come in the shape of Mexican, Esteban Gutierrez, while Force India refugee Hulkenberg takes the other seat. At the front of the grid everything was sorted out long before the winter break, and Lotus sealed their line up after Grosjean avoided hitting anyone for once to win the race of champions. On the whole there are three seats remaining - or possibly five, but we'll get to that issue in a while.

Seats 1 and 2: Force India

As of yet Force India have yet to announce any of their drivers for the coming season, presently they have Paul Di Resta as a strong potential for one of those seats, but nothing is confirmed. Then there is the matter of a possible team-mate. Now that Ferrari have adopted former HRT driver De La Rosa, there is an hint that Ferrari development driver Jules Bianchi is being directed into the spare space. However there is the matter of Adrian Sutil as a possible name, along with the list of displaced drivers from the class of 2012.

Seat 2: Caterham

Having confirmed Charles Pic before the end of the season, there is one space still available, and a large list of people lining up to take the spot in the leading team in the bottom division. Strangely, none of the current drivers are at the top of the list, on account of their limited funding, Heikki wants a drive on merit alone - so he'll get thrown out for not being rich enough. Petrov is also rumoured to be down on funds so the Russian could be out too - which brings Giedo Van Der Garde into the frame, who ran Friday practice late in the year. The result of this can only serve to increase the amount of anger there is among the fans and media regarding 'pay drivers' defeating speed and ability.

Seat 3: Marussia

When we left Brazil it was assumed that this one was done and dusted, maintaining the experience of Glock and a new face of Max Chilton arriving with more money. The Briton has effectively bought his way all the way up the development ladder with a connection to AON insurance or whatever it is they do. His brother Tom has used the same funding to challenge for BTCC wins, but when he and his team couldn't get their way they buggered of to the world series to lose there. So there is not a lot of hope for Max other than being an obstacle at the back - amazing what money does.

Then the plot thickened recently when Timo Glock was removed from the team, another victim of the change in the way the series now operates. Glock now has a seat in DTM for BMW but no news as to who has bought the seat, there is an array of development drivers in the Manor squad but I can assume whoever has the biggest chequebook shall win the seat.

The resurrection of HRT?

I mentioned the potential for two more seats and those could be in the reanimated HRT team, falling into liqudation at the end of the season amputated them from the 2013 grid, or so we thought. News has emerged that there is interest in buying the team and making a return to the grid, under the title 'Scorpion F1'. This sort of story has been doing the rounds before and came to absolutely nothing, after the demise of the Prost GP team in 2001, similar rumours suggested that they would be reborn under the slighly cliché name of 'Phoenix F1'. I've no idea whether the name had anything to do with the Opel Team Phoenix who competed in DTM at the time - with little success. So I can't imagine that we will see 'Scorpion F1' in 2013 - or 2014 but it is a nice idea, and potential for an awesome livery.

Calendar Madness

 The 2013 schedule was initially released with 20 events planned to take place including a new street race in New Jersey, that particular venture was postponed until 2014 (but could go missing altogether) leaving us with 19. But Bernie wants 20 and opened the options up to the floor as who wants to join the calendar this season, the response was less than enthusiastic - the first candidate Istanbul doesn't have enough money to host the race. Then there was the idea of the Red Bull Ring  (formerly the A1 Ring) in Austria, but that was merely an idea with no backing and real momentum, a similar situation with Paul Ricard in France. Then things got a little interesting as a new name was linked to the vacant space on the schedule - Portimao in Portugal, an impressive track with lots of undulation but Portugal isn't really rolling in spare cash to host a race either. In the end it is likely that the space held by Valencia in 2012 will stay empty leaving us with 19 races. One interesting tangent is that the timing equipment from the abandoned port circuit has been stolen... we're not seeing that again.

But 19 races was recently cut back to 18 as problems once more involving money mean that the German GP may be under threat, the race alternates between the Nurburgring and Hockkenheim, and it is the former's turn this time. However the Nurburgring can't afford the race, and if Hockenheim can't pick up the tab then we probably won't have a German GP either. So having an impeccable record in recent seasons for creating world champions doesn't mean you get to keep your race. An indication that older traditional nations are under threat, when the likes of Russia, Mexico and Thailand plotting races in the near Future. Sochi has even been handed a provisional November 2014 date for the first Russian GP - shame that the only Russian driver is on the verge of being booted out

And that is all

So we come to and end of the opening post of the year, of what promises to be a turbulent season full of complaints at the increasing wave of funded drivers replacing current proven talents. There is an argument brewing and with tracks and drivers falling by the wayside - it can't end well for all concerned. But as more cars are released and more of those seats are filled, and the theoretical Scorpion F1 bid unfurls or fades into nothingness - the bigger picture will become clear. So until then this is farewell from Blog HQ.

The 2012 Championship unveiling ceremony

Greetings Internet,

At the end of the final racing weekend of the season where the Australian V8 supercars series drive around the confines of the Sydney Olympic park - see if the Australians can get something out of the facilities after the games, there is hope for London. Seeing the Olympic village converted into a temporary street track for something like a TOCA weekend or F3/GT event would be mightily impressive. Albeit a little unlikely considering we tend not to do street tracks in this country - nothing significant since the Birmingham Superprix in the late 80's. All that however is a slight tangent to where this post is actually heading. Now that the season has been completed and the last flag of the season fell in Brazil only a week ago, it is time to go through the final championship results announcing the winners and losers from what has been a very dynamic season, which in the real world was handed once more to that German bloke, but in the past few days even that was questioned.

Lets roll things back a couple of days, to the events of that final race, where Vettel was turned around on the opening lap by contact with Bruno Senna, that put him down at the back of the grid. During the initial comeback from 22nd up into the top ten in a matter of laps, there was a second crash, one that wasn't picked up by the TV cameras. That crash was that of Maldonado spinning at turn three, an incident that brought out yellow flags in that reason - these flags sparked a storm of internet debate as contradictory footage appeared to show Sebastian overtaking Vergne under those yellows. The dashboard lights indicated a yellow flag situation, while a green flag was being waved on the exit of the pit lane, which would have been after the site of the crashed Williams. So in the end it was deemed valid and Ferrari saw the tiniest glint of redemption fade.

The only other post season news is that Valtteri Bottas has been confirmed as the second Williams driver and will be replacing Bruno Senna, while keeping Maldonado on for his slightly chaotic speed, but more for his money. This adds Senna to the list of drivers looking for a drive next season, a list which is becoming very extensive, all of which will be excited by the fact that Grosjean hasn't been confirmed at Lotus alongside Raikkonen. So there is the prospect of one of the many drivers in the wings to claim a top line seat, there is also an unconfirmed space at Force India in replacement of Hulkenberg. Two seats that will likely not be available are the two at HRT as the likelihood of them being on the 2013 grid has been dramatically diminished as they have not submitted a formal entry to next season.

Now we are all caught up - onto the awards for 2012.

credit to F1Fanatic.co.uk

The 2012 championship winners

This is the second edition of the bonus points championship, where the inaugural title was claimed by Jenson Button this time last season, and coming into the final race the McLaren driver was just in the running to steal a double in the final race. This process would go a lot better with a swanky studio and a glamorous assistant, but instead I have a dark lonely corner and a car perched on the back the sofa digging claws into to my neck... hmm slightly far from ideal rather. Nevermind - here is the first announcement on the program this evening and it is the penalties series...

The official blog penalties championship

In this category the blog points out the drivers who have received a variety of penalties across the season, filtering out all the technical penalties that the FIA like to throw at people for gearbox and engine changes. If all those were left in then the table would look rather distorted by the end of the season and impact the results. Speaking of results it is time to go through the final standings - this is where a drumroll would happen and an assistant would wander on with a golden envelope, but not here.

• In third place: Michael Schumacher: In the final podium place on three driving penalties was  the outgoing multi-world title winning driver making a mark on at least one championship in the year of his second retirement, remaining just as much of a trouble maker as he was back in the Ferrari days.
• In second place: One-Stop Perez:  Having effectively left Sauber at the end of the season and now preparing for the hop across to McLaren but that journey hasn't been so smooth this year, and a few of those bumps just happened to be other cars. Showing a little bit more inexperienced when running slightly further forward at times and ultimately running into people earning second in the penalties series. 
• And the winner is: Pastor Maldonado: No massive surprises there, the Venezuelan has made some controversal moves over the course of the year, none more shameful than ramming Sergio Perez in Monaco practice before stuffing it in the barrier a few laps later. There has also been contact with Hamilton in Valencia and Di Resta in Hungary, all adding up to make the Williams driver the highest scoring driver in the blog penalties series for 2012.

The official blog penalty points championship

In addition to the penalties championships there is the infamous in house form of justice that is the penalty points championship, based on the base unit - the penalty point, a force which has been applied to several entities throughout the year. Arguably less penalty points have been awarded this year than in the opening season - but more people have been handed single point, however there is a winner and the results are as follows.

• In joint second place: Lewis Hamilton: In his final season at McLaren the 2008 champion was almost able to reclaim the title of being a double penalty point world champion - but Lewis has calmed down a lot this season. As a result hasn't figured as far up in the table in 2012.
• Also in second place: Romain Grosjean: Where the FIA didn't get the slightly calamitous Frenchman the blog certainly did, Romain virtually hit everyone at some point in the season. Even in the final weekend he hit De La Rosa in qualifying and ended the race buried in the tyre barrier. A sequence of accidents and incidents that have likely lead to his seat not being confirmed at this stage. 
• So the winner is: Michael Schumacher: This could almost considered as going out on a high, an 8th title comes in this penalty points series. A score based on several non-appearances in Q3 and running into the back of people, topped off with some aggressive defensive driving pushing people around - including almost forcing Button into another state in Austin. Well done Michael you've won something in 2012.

The official blog bonus points championship

This is the ultimate highlight of the season, the recognition of which should be considered far and above that of the FIA title - and this season's winner has been tweeted, as Jenson was last season. This has illicited the same response as Button's inaugural championship - complete bugger all, which as depressing as it is, is not at all surprising. Most of the people of the internet don't exactly recognise that this corner actually exists. But enough with that rant, it is time for the final results. 

• In joint second place: Jenson Button: With victories at the beginning and the end of the season, Jenson came close to taking a double bonus points title, coming from a long way behind in the final race to take a joint second step on the podium. Button's championship has been blighted by some missed opportunities and failing to get the hang of the tyres, both of which kept him off the top step this time in 2012.
• Also in second place: Kimi Raikkonen: In a very successful comeback career after spending some time away in rallying the Finn dominated the bonus points season, leading for almost the entire season but faded slightly towards the end. A challenge revitalised by a win in Abu Dhabi, but a middling finale only marked by an adventure up an escape road cost some vital points was a charge was threatening that points lead.
• And the winner is: Felipe Massa: After a frankly dull opening half of the season, Felipe made a remarkable comeback, to the point where he was out pacing and out-qualifying the other red car that was fighting for the actual title. A performance that was frowned upon by the team resulting in a penalty in the US to move him out of the way. Weathering that storm to finish on the podium in an emotional home race, for Felipe allowed him to steal the bonus points title away from Kimi in that final race. 

Some notable mentions

Not everyone can win the bonus points championship, or even end up on the famous podium - there were some other performances that earned many points, but not quite enough for a championship challenge.

• Nico Hulkenberg: In the final few races eclipsed his team-mate and almost claimed a dramatic win in Brazil. Scoring many points in the second half of the year, working up to 10th in the bonus standings. 
• Takuma Sato: For being the only driver in the entire history of the blog to claim an event win without even competing on the grid, a score that was awarded for coming so close to winning the famous indy 500 race. Takuma would have taken the race if a little impatience saw him crash when trying to pass Dario Franchitti on the final lap.
• Fernando Alonso: Based on the speed of that car in Australia, spinning into the gravel in qualifying Fernando should really not have been competing for the championship at the end of the year. Wrestling with a car which was off the pace of the leading teams, highlighting that a driver can have an effect in a weaker car. 
• McLaren: Have to have a mention for having the quickest car all year, but failed to maximise its potential, with a series of pit stop errors and mistakes in the opening half of the season, matched with some race ending mechanical dramas costing wins and at least 50 points for Hamilton in Singapore and Abu Dhabi ruined their hopes of a championship.

That is the end of the 2012 season, as the drivers head off for the Race of Champions event in a few weeks time which is the official end of year party for the majority of the field, where Vettel and Schumacher are going as team Germany. I can sense some more domination this year there as well, but as more updates filter through the internet and things the blog shall return with those and make sure that this little corner of the internet stays going through the winter. So until then, this is farewell from the blog.

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.