Bottas stars in America while Vettel makes it look easy

It was a tough choice to pick who had the biggest starring role of the second American Grand Prix to take place in Austin, Texas at the Circuit of the America’s. There’s an obvious choice, but in a season in which one of the oldest and most successful teams in Formula 1’s history have struggled to even scrape a point I think you have to go with Williams’ Valtteri Bottas.

The young Finn has been overlooked during the season but has displayed a calm composure throughout his first season at the highest level. His team mate Pastor Maldonado may to some be seen as a budget driver but we shouldn’t forget his fantastic race winning performance amongst a number of other fine drivers from 2012.

The fact that Bottas has generally proven to have an edge, certainly in qualifying which he leads 11-7, marks him out as a driver who will become one of the stars of the sport. We’ve seen flashes of his talent come through, his remarkable third in qualifying for Canada in mixed conditions which also displayed his defensive skills on race day showed that he was one to watch.

However a complete weekend that would make people sit up and take notice has failed to materialise until now. Bottas was on it the moment practice started in Texas. His qualifying was remarkable, heading the field in Q2, before admitting that he underperformed in Q3 to line up ninth. This time though, there was to be no falling down the pack as in Canada.

His car allowed him to fight. He had a good start, and was up to eighth by the end of the first lap, while Maldonado had clashed with Adrian Sutil who spun into the barriers to cause a first lap safety car. Bottas kept his calm and fended off anyone who came near and even attacked Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari.

It was a truly impressive performance, he trounced his team mate, kept his pace up and made one of the overtaking moves of the race as he flew around the outside of Esteban Gutierrez into turn two to claim the line. It was breath taking, and as he fought for Williams’ only second points finish of the year utterly nerve wracking.

But he kept it together and brought the car home in eighth place to claim his first four points in Formula 1. It was a showing that he needed, but one which was always coming.

Alonso spell-binding again as Hulkenberg shines once more

As Ferrari get slow Alonso still grinds out the results. He’s not been on the podium for five races now, but he’s still fighting for everything he can get. He’s a true warrior of the sport who will just never give up.

After his Abu Dhabi exploits where he jumped over a kerb to avoid Jean-Eric Vergne’s Toro Rosso registering over a 25g impact, he had to go to hospital for a check-up. Since then he has suffered from headaches and back pain, yet still today he fought until the end.

He lost a place at the start to Sergio Perez to run in seventh for the opening half of the race, but managed to jump the McLaren driver at his first and only stop as most went for a single stop strategy. He passed Nico Hulkenberg to move up to fifth, but then as the race came down to its last few laps the Sauber driver began to creep back up to the back of Alonso.

The Ferrari’s tyres were done, and the Sauber began to grow larger in the scarlet cars mirrors and was into the DRS zone ready to make a move. On the final lap he made his move diving down the inside into turn 1, but Alonso is wily, he knew it was coming and had prepared for it. He let his car go wide to get a better exit and swung straight back past Hulkenberg to keep his fifth place with Hulk settling for sixth.

It’s not the result Alonso wanted but it was the best he could do on the day as his team mate Felipe Massa languished in 12^th. Nico Hulkenberg again demonstrated why he should be in a top team, qualifying fourth, losing out to Lewis Hamilton at the start but generally keep pace with the everyone behind the top three. Another impressive showing, but one I fear will not lead him to the Lotus seat which now appears to be heading to a driver with money.

Grosjean secures another podium

Romain Grosjean secured his fourth podium in five races with second place. Behind Vettel he has scored the most points in the last five races, a fantastic run of form which adds more credence to why he’ll be a top line driver in 2014. I just hope Lotus secure enough funds to keep up their current top team status and bring out a good car which continues to allow Grosjean to shine.

It was said in the Sky commentary that a Lotus insider has said that since Grosjean became a father over the summer he has matured and taken a step back and reassessed his priorities in life. This has made him relax more and calm down. He’s pushing but letting things come to him rather than make things happen and risk a mistake. He’s also using a psychologist to put him in the best frame of mind for his racing.

It certainly seems to be working; he made a great start to move from third to second on the opening lap despite being crowded at the start. Mark Webber also put in a good showing behind in third and was closing down Grosjean towards the end of the race. It’s a mark of how increasingly mature the Lotus driver is as he didn’t even feign to block Webber in the DRS zone. He was confident enough to know the Red Bull driver wasn’t closing fast enough and he could maintain his line throughout. If the Lotus is good next year, Grosjean is going to be on it, that I think there is no doubt.

The Battles for points

Lewis Hamilton put in a lot better showing than he has done recently, running relatively strongly in fourth throughout the race. He said he noticed a difference in the new chassis that Mercedes brought him after his previous one was discovered to have developed cracks.

He couldn’t keep pace with the leaders though and had a number of fairly grumpy exchanges with his engineer on the radio which Ross Brawn said the team were getting used to in a rather annoyed fashion it seemed. Lewis wants to win and when he can’t even compete it doesn’t go down so well, still it was a better weekend.

Nico Rosberg seemed altogether calmer in the other Mercedes but after a poor qualifying session had left him in 12^th he did manage to get his race on towards the end to fight his way into the points and claim a decent ninth spot.  

Sergio Perez has out-qualified and out-raced his McLaren team mate Jenson Button for the last three races and for that he has been sacked. Admittedly his replacement Kevin Magnussen just looks to be awesome but still I think that Perez has been treated slightly harshly. He put in another good showing to finish seventh while Button grabbed tenth after a spirited drive from 16^th on the grid. He had suffered a three place penalty due to overtaking under red flags in practice.

Esteban Gutierrez deserves a mention for battling his way up the field. He looked quick again and had made it into Q3 but took a ten place grid drop for blocking Maldonado in Q1. He finished up 13th after Jean-Eric Vergne got a 20 second penalty added to his race time for colliding with the Mexican. 

Heikki Kovalainen also starred as Kimi Raikkonen’s replacement lining up seventh. He fell to 12^th at the start but had fought his way back into the points before front wing damage and failing KERS caused him to make an extra stop and lose pace.

Shall we save the best until last?

What more superlatives can we come up to describe Sebastian Vettel. Yet again he was awesome, yet again he took pole position, led most of the race and romped home to the win, setting another fastest lap which will have annoyed his engineer and once more celebrated in style with some fantastic donuts.

He’s a phenomenon is Vettel. He was in utter control throughout and his fastest lap two laps from home was six tenths quicker than anyone else, you know, just to rub it in a little. He was very emotional on the podium and he seems genuinely over whelmed with everything he’s achieved, as if he can’t quite believe this is happening to him. It’s a wonderful sight to see someone truly appreciate that they are in the midst of making history and it obviously means just so much to him. And it’s not just himself, I think he feels it for everyone in the Red Bull team.

It was his eighth consecutive victory, which makes him the first driver ever to achieve eight wins in a single season. Some people describe it as boring, and there is inevitability to a race when you see the number 1 Red Bull streak into the lead at the start. But this shouldn’t matter to fans of the sport, yes we want to see exciting racing but what you are witnessing is perfection.

Once again Vettel was magnificent, and moving onto the final race in Brazil I’m sure he’ll be a strong bet for the triple hat trick. Of course Brazil often throws up some rain, but you know what, Vettel’s pretty good with a car on H2O too.

Final Result after 56 laps:

1. Sebastian Vettel - Red Bull

2. Romain Grosjean - Lotus

3. Mark Webber - Red Bull

4. Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes

5. Fernando Alonso - Ferrari

6. Nico Hulkenberg - Sauber

7. Sergio Perez - McLaren

8. Valtteri Bottas - Williams

9. Nico Rosberg - Mercedes

10. Jenson Button - McLaren

11. Daniel Ricciardo - Toro Rosso

12. Felipe Massa - Ferrari

13. Esteban Gutierrez - Sauber

14. Heikki Kovalainen - Lotus

15. Paul di Resta - Force India

16. Jean-Eric Vergne - Toro Rosso

17. Pastor Maldonado - Williams

18. Jules Bianchi - Marussia

19. Giedo van der Garde - Caterham

20. Charles Pic - Caterham

21. Max Chilton - Marussia

R. Adrian Sutil - Force India - Accident

all photo's taken from autosport.com