Race Round-up: US Grand Prix, Austin.

In what has been a fairly processional run of events of late, Austin came through and gave us a comparatively exciting reminder as to why we love this sport.

There was high emotion, both anger and elation, thrills, spills and good close racing all the way down the field.
For starters; Vettel secured his eighth successive victory, surpassing the record of seven wins held by Alberto Ascari from 1953 until it was matched by Michael Schumacher in 2004. Whether we like it or not, we're witnessing history. Webber sadly had to settle for third, after Frenchman Romain Grosjean was the self proclaimed 'better man', taking the opportunity to show his ability as a number one driver by the scruff of its neck and really showing what he can do.

The race wasn't without incident; on the opening lap, Pastor Maldonado, who was already of the firm belief that Williams had sabotaged his car, and Adrian Sutil, who is fighting for his career, were running close down the back-straight, ending in contact, which sent Sutil into the barrier at hight speed, as well as damaging Maldonado's front wing, for which he was black-and-orange-flagged. 

Sutil, when asked about the incident post-race, said "On a very big straight, with a lot of space left and right, for some reason I got a hit on the left tyre in the middle of the straight and lost the car... It was very shocking. You'd never believe something like that, but it happened. There was no reason to be so close. I was on my line and I didn't do anything different... I was staying straight with my steering wheel and to the left and right there was a lot of space. I don't understand why someone then hits you." Sutil even went as far as saying that despite efforts he's made to talk to Maldonado, "I've tried it several times, but he's on a different planet."

This brought out the safety car for the first time ever at Austin, and once it had received the call to come in, Vettel backed the pack up in such a way that many onlookers deemed to be excessive in an effort to get one of his usual safety car launches.

Bottas was a man out to show he means business, qualifying strongly, more than a second clear from the unceremoniously departing Maldonado, claiming his first points by the end of the race finishing in a very respectable 8th position.

"It is a great day and I am very happy for the team. We have finally got some points for me as well, four points. We did a really good job today, the strategy, the race start, the pitstop, everyone from the team did such a good job so I really felt that we deserved it."

Hulkenberg showed us yet again that his form isn't just a flash in the pan, firmly sticking himself in the shop window as Formula 1 plays its biggest game of musical chairs for decades. However it was more than just his on-track exploits that had the rumour mill turning.

It has been said that Ferrari, locked in a fierce battle for second in the constructors championship, had paid future employee Kimi Raikkonen to move his scheduled back operation forward, eliminating him from the last two races of the season. It has also been said that Ferrari paid Sauber in order to pay Hulkenberg, who had been scouted by Lotus as a replacement for the Finn, and who also, up until that point, had been fairly free to do as he pleased as Sauber had broken their contract by not paying him. After Hulkenberg had been paid, the contract was then back in effect, stopping Hulkenberg from accepting Lotus' tempting offer. It has since been speculated that Hulkenberg, growing tired of waiting for the Lotus-Quantum deal to materialise, is instead drafting up papers with Force India for the 2014 season.

Lotus, not to be outdone by the prancing horses, overlooked the skilled but inexperienced Davide Valsecci and instead filled the seat with another Finn; Heikki Kovalainen, who was more than happy to take the wheel and prove his metal having been out of a race seat for almost a year. Kovalainen impressed in qualifying, managing to stay within six tenths of team mate Grosjean, despite a disastrous race that saw him drop down to an eventual 14th. Lotus remained impressed, and will be retaining him for the final race of the season.

Lewis Hamilton was his usual indecisive self, telling Peter Bonnington, his race engineer, on the radio that '[managing the tyres is] what I'm doing man - just let me focus' as well as 'I'm trying to' when told to maintain pace, then contradicted himself a little by saying 'I need you to give me some feedback, man! About tyre temperatures...', but despite this seemed pretty pleased with his 4th place and cares not for the driver's championship.

"Definitely, definitely, I'm very, very happy. Just happy for the guys and happy to have gone forward [in the race]. I'm always talking about staying where I am or going forwards and so really happy with that.The team did a great job - the car was night and day difference to what it was in Abu Dhabi. So I'm pretty sure the new tub [chassis] helped." 

When asked about the driver's championship, he said "It doesn't mean anything. Plus the guy that was in third is not even racing, so it doesn't mean anything to me,"

Hamilton later apologised to Bonnington, stating that “The poor guy has come on the radio and then I come back at him. I will always say sorry. I will tell him he did a great job, but it is the heat of the moment, man. Stuff does not come out like ‘hey buddy, just give me a little moment here’. It’s like you are holding on to a bull and it’s like ‘give me a frickin’ second’.”

For the Mclaren duo, it was a race to forget; with Button starting in a lowly 16th, who managed to work his way up into 10th place, with a masterful piece of overtaking against future Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo. Sergio Perez, the man being turfed out by Mclaren next season to make way for Kevin Magnussen, was locked in an exciting battle with Alonso during the middle phase of the race, but could only finished where he began in 7th place.

For Sauber and Torro Rosso, it was a bitter-sweet weekend; for Sauber, Nico Hulkenberg had managed to stick his car right up at the sharp end in qualifying, which couldn't be matched by team mate Esteban Gutierrez, who initially qualified 10th but was then moved down to 20th after a careless bit of driving during qualifying earned him a ten-place grid penalty. In the end, Hulkenberg sadly went backwards a couple of places, ending up in 6th, whilst Gutierrez, despite making up some places had his race ruined by Jean-Eric Vergne on the last lap; while trying to overtake Vergne through turn 13, the Frenchman turned in on Gutierrez, briefly launching his Sauber into the air and into a spin. Gutierrez recovered to finish 14th, but was later promoted to 13th, after Vergne received a 20-second time penalty added to his overall race time, dropping him from 12th to 16th. 

Many saw the penalty to be fairly superficial, with Vergne having lost nothing other than a few places on the classifications board, and believed a fine or reprimand would have been a more effective penalty. 

As for Vergne's team-mate, Daniel Ricciardo, he managed to put in a solid performance, starting and finishing in 11th place, with some skilled wheel-to-wheel action with Button. His performances of late are showing that he may give Vettel a little grief next year.

Towards the back, it was relative business as usual, with the two Caterhams and Marussias rounding out the field; Max Chilton managed to continue his finishing streak, set to break a record by finishing every race in his rookie season, which may provide further impetus in his efforts to secure a seat next year, which are rumoured to be going well. Jules Bianchi once again showed himself to be one to watch in the future, finishing ahead of both Caterhams and team-mate Chilton.

So as the Formula 1 circus moves onto Interlagos, we could be in for a real treat; granted it won't quite hold the same levels of suspense that it did in previous years, but it may well spring a few surprises. With it being the last race in Australian Mark Webber's eventful and strong career, one hopes it will serve as the perfect platform for F1 to bid a fond, final farewell to everyone's favourite straight-talking Aussie.


Article by Chris Kinsman
MyF1World Journalist.