Just before doing his now customary celebration of a post-race doughnut, Vettel appeared to get somewhat emotional on the team radio after taking the chequered flag, saying: "We have to remember these days; we have to enjoy them while they last."
Those words indicate that the 26-year-old is not taking any of his phenomenal recent success for granted. For him, every victory is to be savoured, as if it could well be his last; his lack of complacency is incredible for somebody who has become so used to standing atop the podium.
A winning margin of just over six seconds may seem meagre by his recent standards, but Vettel was just as in control of proceedings at the Circuit of the Americas he had been at Abu Dhabi, where he won by a crushing 30 seconds, two weeks earlier. With just about every team aiming for a one-stop strategy, tyre preservation limited the rate at which Vettel was at liberty to gallop into the distance.
Vettel managed to eke 27 laps out of the set of medium tyres on which he qualified on pole position on Saturday and escaped from nearest pursuer Romain Grosjean to the tune of eight seconds during the first stint. The Frenchman, from third on the grid, surged around the outside of front row starter Mark Webber at the first corner, but was powerless to keep Vettel in check.
Lewis Hamilton, from fifth on the grid, also managed to jump Webber at the start, but it soon became clear that the Brit was holding up the second Red Bull. Webber seized third position back from Hamilton with a bold outside pass at turn 12 and proceeded to catch up with second place man Grosjean.
The Lotus driver however was in no mood to relinquish what would be his best finish of the season, having been denied the runner-up spot behind Vettel at Germany, Japan and Korea. Webber piled on the pressure on Grosjean after his one and only pit-stop on lap 28, Grosjean coming in the following lap, but after several laps of frustration he decided to drop back to cool his tyres.
With around 10 laps remaining, Webber renewed his assault on Grosjean in a bid to snatch Red Bull's third one-two finish in four races, but some sublime defending by Grosjean meant that Webber would have to be content with third place in his penultimate race as an F1 driver.
It was the latest in a long line of impressive drives by Grosjean, who has scored more points than anyone in the last five races besides Vettel. Lotus team principal Eric Boullier was full of praise for his charge after the race, and on recent evidence it's difficult to argue with his claim that Grosjean is now among the sport's top three or four drivers.
Hamilton was never in the frame for a podium finish after being demoted by Webber, but a new chassis for this weekend undoubtedly came as a boost after two lacklustre showings at India and Abu Dhabi. The Brit came under some pressure from Fernando Alonso in the closing stages, but hung on to claim fourth place and consolidate second in the constructors' standings for Mercedes.
Alonso had his best qualifying effort for some time with sixth on the grid, but lost time behind Sergio Perez, who vaulted ahead at the first corner, during the first stint. The Spaniard managed to leapfrog the McLaren driver at the pit-stops, before catching up with Nico Hulkenberg, who had started fourth but dropped behind Hamilton at the start, late in the race.
The inevitable pass came on lap 45 at the first corner, but after Alonso dropped back from the tail of Hamilton, Hulkenberg closed in once more on the two-time champion. At the start of the final lap, Hulkenberg made an opportunistic lunge on Alonso at the first corner, but the move failed to come off and he had to settle for sixth place.
In seventh was Perez after an assured performance from the Mexican which will inevitably raise the question of whether McLaren were somewhat rash in their decision to drop him for next year in favour of rookie Kevin Magnussen. Behind him came Williams driver Valterri Bottas, who was one of the stars of the weekend after qualifying and finishing in the top ten to score the first F1 points of his career.
Rounding out the top ten were two drivers who, on this occasion, were out-classed by their teammates - Nico Rosberg and Jenson Button. Both surprisingly failed to make it into Q3, starting 12th and 15th respectively (the latter after a three place grid penalty for overtaking under red flags during a practice session), but succeeded in battling their way up to ninth and tenth places.
Button however only secured the final points-paying position on the penultimate lap of the race as he passed Daniel Ricciardo at the first corner, the Australian coming home 11th. The sister Toro Rosso of Jean-Eric Vergne finished 12th on the road, but was docked 20 seconds for causing a late collision with Esteban Gutierrez, dropping the Frenchman to 16th.
That handed 12th place to Felipe Massa, one of the few drivers to make two pit-stops during the race; the Brazilian was another driver to qualify outside of the top ten and appeared rather out of sorts for much of the race. Next up at the finish was Gutierrez, and Lotus substitute Heikki Kovalainen, who had an eventful time in his first race since last year's season-closing Brazilian Grand Prix.
The weekend got off to an auspicious start for the 32-year-old as he made the Q3 cut and qualified a respectable eighth, but things went downhill thereafter. Kovalainen made a poor start, dropping to 12th at the end of the first lap, before clawing back some of the lost ground with an earlier pit stop. He slumped back to 14th at the finish line, however, after having to make a second stop for a fresh nose due to an unspecified problem that was costing him downforce.
Paul Di Resta had a difficult race, having to stop twice en route to a subdued 15th place, though he fared better than teammate Adrian Sutil, who became the first (and only) casualty of the race after first lap contact with Pastor Maldonado put the German, who was unequivocal about who was to blame, in the barriers.
Maldonado, who accused his Williams team of sabotaging his car after qualifying down in 17th, had to pit soon after to replace his damaged nose when shown the black-and-orange flag. The Venezuelan finished where he started, a lap down, ahead of the four 'Class B' cars, who were led home on this occasion by Marussia's Jules Bianchi.
Unfortunately, the second ever F1 race at the Circuit of the Americas was not a terribly exciting affair. The race day attendance reportedly was over 110,000, a robust figure by any standards, but that comes after a thrilling contest between Vettel and Hamilton last year. What's more, some 40 percent of the fans were Mexican, no doubt encouraged to make the trip across the border by the presence of Messrs Perez and Gutierrez.
The lack of action can mostly be put down to the conservative tyre choice made by Pirelli - not because it allowed the drivers to go flat out, but because it meant that the drivers were managing their rubber virtually throughout to achieve the holy grail of a one-stop strategy. Whilst there were a few good battles for position, in most cases the driver that made the pass simply drove into the distance.
There seems to be a fear in the paddock that next year's new technical regulations will create more scenarios like we saw at Austin, as the drivers will be forced to manage their engines throughout. Let's hope, then, that the teams and governing body are able to find a solution to ensure that races of the kind seen yesterday do not become the norm.
A winning margin of just over six seconds may seem meagre by his recent standards, but Vettel was just as in control of proceedings at the Circuit of the Americas he had been at Abu Dhabi, where he won by a crushing 30 seconds, two weeks earlier. With just about every team aiming for a one-stop strategy, tyre preservation limited the rate at which Vettel was at liberty to gallop into the distance.
Vettel managed to eke 27 laps out of the set of medium tyres on which he qualified on pole position on Saturday and escaped from nearest pursuer Romain Grosjean to the tune of eight seconds during the first stint. The Frenchman, from third on the grid, surged around the outside of front row starter Mark Webber at the first corner, but was powerless to keep Vettel in check.
Lewis Hamilton, from fifth on the grid, also managed to jump Webber at the start, but it soon became clear that the Brit was holding up the second Red Bull. Webber seized third position back from Hamilton with a bold outside pass at turn 12 and proceeded to catch up with second place man Grosjean.
The Lotus driver however was in no mood to relinquish what would be his best finish of the season, having been denied the runner-up spot behind Vettel at Germany, Japan and Korea. Webber piled on the pressure on Grosjean after his one and only pit-stop on lap 28, Grosjean coming in the following lap, but after several laps of frustration he decided to drop back to cool his tyres.
With around 10 laps remaining, Webber renewed his assault on Grosjean in a bid to snatch Red Bull's third one-two finish in four races, but some sublime defending by Grosjean meant that Webber would have to be content with third place in his penultimate race as an F1 driver.
It was the latest in a long line of impressive drives by Grosjean, who has scored more points than anyone in the last five races besides Vettel. Lotus team principal Eric Boullier was full of praise for his charge after the race, and on recent evidence it's difficult to argue with his claim that Grosjean is now among the sport's top three or four drivers.
Hamilton was never in the frame for a podium finish after being demoted by Webber, but a new chassis for this weekend undoubtedly came as a boost after two lacklustre showings at India and Abu Dhabi. The Brit came under some pressure from Fernando Alonso in the closing stages, but hung on to claim fourth place and consolidate second in the constructors' standings for Mercedes.
Alonso had his best qualifying effort for some time with sixth on the grid, but lost time behind Sergio Perez, who vaulted ahead at the first corner, during the first stint. The Spaniard managed to leapfrog the McLaren driver at the pit-stops, before catching up with Nico Hulkenberg, who had started fourth but dropped behind Hamilton at the start, late in the race.
The inevitable pass came on lap 45 at the first corner, but after Alonso dropped back from the tail of Hamilton, Hulkenberg closed in once more on the two-time champion. At the start of the final lap, Hulkenberg made an opportunistic lunge on Alonso at the first corner, but the move failed to come off and he had to settle for sixth place.
In seventh was Perez after an assured performance from the Mexican which will inevitably raise the question of whether McLaren were somewhat rash in their decision to drop him for next year in favour of rookie Kevin Magnussen. Behind him came Williams driver Valterri Bottas, who was one of the stars of the weekend after qualifying and finishing in the top ten to score the first F1 points of his career.
Rounding out the top ten were two drivers who, on this occasion, were out-classed by their teammates - Nico Rosberg and Jenson Button. Both surprisingly failed to make it into Q3, starting 12th and 15th respectively (the latter after a three place grid penalty for overtaking under red flags during a practice session), but succeeded in battling their way up to ninth and tenth places.
Button however only secured the final points-paying position on the penultimate lap of the race as he passed Daniel Ricciardo at the first corner, the Australian coming home 11th. The sister Toro Rosso of Jean-Eric Vergne finished 12th on the road, but was docked 20 seconds for causing a late collision with Esteban Gutierrez, dropping the Frenchman to 16th.
That handed 12th place to Felipe Massa, one of the few drivers to make two pit-stops during the race; the Brazilian was another driver to qualify outside of the top ten and appeared rather out of sorts for much of the race. Next up at the finish was Gutierrez, and Lotus substitute Heikki Kovalainen, who had an eventful time in his first race since last year's season-closing Brazilian Grand Prix.
The weekend got off to an auspicious start for the 32-year-old as he made the Q3 cut and qualified a respectable eighth, but things went downhill thereafter. Kovalainen made a poor start, dropping to 12th at the end of the first lap, before clawing back some of the lost ground with an earlier pit stop. He slumped back to 14th at the finish line, however, after having to make a second stop for a fresh nose due to an unspecified problem that was costing him downforce.
Paul Di Resta had a difficult race, having to stop twice en route to a subdued 15th place, though he fared better than teammate Adrian Sutil, who became the first (and only) casualty of the race after first lap contact with Pastor Maldonado put the German, who was unequivocal about who was to blame, in the barriers.
Maldonado, who accused his Williams team of sabotaging his car after qualifying down in 17th, had to pit soon after to replace his damaged nose when shown the black-and-orange flag. The Venezuelan finished where he started, a lap down, ahead of the four 'Class B' cars, who were led home on this occasion by Marussia's Jules Bianchi.
Unfortunately, the second ever F1 race at the Circuit of the Americas was not a terribly exciting affair. The race day attendance reportedly was over 110,000, a robust figure by any standards, but that comes after a thrilling contest between Vettel and Hamilton last year. What's more, some 40 percent of the fans were Mexican, no doubt encouraged to make the trip across the border by the presence of Messrs Perez and Gutierrez.
The lack of action can mostly be put down to the conservative tyre choice made by Pirelli - not because it allowed the drivers to go flat out, but because it meant that the drivers were managing their rubber virtually throughout to achieve the holy grail of a one-stop strategy. Whilst there were a few good battles for position, in most cases the driver that made the pass simply drove into the distance.
There seems to be a fear in the paddock that next year's new technical regulations will create more scenarios like we saw at Austin, as the drivers will be forced to manage their engines throughout. Let's hope, then, that the teams and governing body are able to find a solution to ensure that races of the kind seen yesterday do not become the norm.
No comments:
Post a Comment