Hi everyone! As the season is drawing to a close, Vettel remained unchallenged in yesterday’s USA Grand Prix with a great performance. This kid is simply untouchable it seems. I personally really like the USA track, the support from the fans is wonderful and there is a great vibe at the track. I always love it when you can hear the crowd cheering above the roar of the F1 engines.
Even though the race was rather uneventful with not much overtaking taking place, there were a few drivers that had a good run, and some minor incidents for others along the way.
Firstly, our race winner Sebastian Vettel. Vettel looked as though he was going to give up first place to Romain Grosjean in the first corner, but managed to hold it and after that the race was pretty much wrapped up. Vettel’s teammate Webber lost out on the first corner after Lewis Hamilton snatched away P3.
Adrian Sutil lost out big time to Pastor Maldonado when they made contact on the first lap which caused Sutil to spin into the barriers, bringing out the Safety Car immediately.
Hamilton was acting like a right brat again – either snapping at his race engineers for giving him too much information or snapping at them for not giving him enough. Mark Webber soon closed the gap on the Brit and made an easy DRS pass on lap 13.
For those of you who were paying close attention, Kimi Raikkonen was not racing, as he has opted to have back surgery in order to start his rehabilitation before joining the Ferrari team next season. Heiki Kovaleinen stood in for the Fin, and finished in an unremarkable 15th position.
It must also be added that Romain Grosjean is a completely ‘new’ driver in comparison to his performances last year. He jokingly remarked in the pre-podium room that if he crashes in the first corner the team will ‘kill’ him. I thought that was rather funny considering his awful track record of first corner crashes last year. I think the Frenchman is racing really well this year and I believe that 2014 will see him really step up. Will be interesting to see who will take the open Lotus seat next year. I hope to death it won’t be Pastor Maldonado, but the Venezuelan comes with hefty sponsorship money, so chances might be likely. However, in the same breath, so does Sergio Perez, so it will be interesting to see if Lotus decides to go with either one of them. There is clearly no love loss between Maldonado and Team Williams, with snide comments flying from Maldonado’s court in the last few weeks.
I do feel kind of sorry for Perez who has been notified very late by McLaren that his contract won’t be renewed after just one year of driving with the team. That honour has gone to up and coming rookie Kevin Magnussen. Will be interesting to see what Jenslow does with him in 2014.
Lots of race rule changes coming up for the 2014 season, and we have a little F1 prize giving right here on All Things Jabu for the last race of the season.
Enjoy the week and see you all in Brazil this weekend!
Result
01 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull 1:39.17.148
02 Romain Grosjean Lotus +6.2
03 Mark Webber Red Bull +8.3
04 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +27.3
05 Fernando Alonso Ferrari +29.5
06 Nico Hulkenberg Sauber +30.4
07 Sergio Perez McLaren +46.6
08 Valtteri Bottas Williams +54.5
09 Nico Rosberg Mercedes +59.1
10 Jenson Button McLaren +77.2
11 Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso +81.0
12 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso +84.5
13 Felipe Massa Ferrari +86.9
14 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber +91.7
15 Heikki Kovalainen Lotus +95.0
16 Paul di Resta Force India +96.8
17 Pastor Maldonado Williams +1 lap
18 Jules Bianchi Marussia +1 lap
19 Giedo van der Garde Caterham +1 lap
20 Charles Pic Caterham +1 lap
21 Max Chilton Marussia +2 laps
R Adrian Sutil Force India RETIRED