The Yas Marina circuit is beautiful to look at, especially
when the lights go on as darkness surrounds the track in what is uniquely the
only dusk to night race on the Formula 1 calendar. Nothing unique about the
result though as Sebastian Vettel took his seventh win in succession in a drive
that matched the fantastic surroundings.
The only mistake he made all weekend was on his final
qualifying run, allowing an inspired Mark Webber to snatch pole position with a
brilliant lap. Vettel quickly put that right, a perfect start put him into the
lead by the first corner and as is now tradition immediately opened up a gap.
He was untouchable today as he has been so many times, but
the win was secured with an advantage of over 30 seconds making it a truly
dominant win. If he hadn’t have had to stay measured and in control of the
tyres I’ve a feeling he could’ve lapped the entire field today. He seemed to be
able to set fastest laps at will even when others had stopped for much fresher
rubber; another awe-inspiring performance matched with even better donuts than
his championship win.
Behind there was plenty of action going on and plenty of
intrigue with various strategy calls between team mates. You wouldn’t think
Caterham really needed to employ team orders for instance but yet there were
apparently intense discussions between Charles Pic who was being told to let
his team mate Giedo van der Garde ahead and the pit wall.
van der Garde was the faster at this point in the race but I
would have thought in their current situation of being pretty distant from the
midfield and normally ahead of their main rivals Marussia that they could just
have let them race. But even at the back it seems there are ways the team would
like their drivers to behave. As for Marussia, Jules Bianchi finished ahead of
Max Chilton. Chilton is being rumoured to go to Caterham at the moment, I would
imagine because he has a lot of money behind him. It can’t be because of his
driving surely, as in all fairness to him Bianchi has utterly destroyed him
this year.
I’d also give Caterham’s two current drivers another year
anyways as they have been reasonably evenly matched, van der Garde particularly
has improved a lot as the year has gone on. Just as I thought it unusual that
Caterham were employing team orders it was equally noticeable that Ferrari didn’t,
at least not overtly.
Fernando Alonso was stuck behind Felipe Massa for a large
majority of the race and not once was there a sign that they were wanting the
Brazilian to move over. Massa should be allowed to race anyway, he’s already
said he’s driving for himself now and since he was told he was losing his seat
he’s been on it, at least in qualifying where he’s been ahead of Alonso for
five of the last six races.
Fernando has mostly got ahead in the races pretty easily,
but it was a stirring performance from Massa today particularly his move on
Lewis Hamilton who was trying to overtake Adrian Sutil's Force India but forgot
about the Ferrari who sneaked ahead pulling the move that Lewis failed to do.
However it was a little odd that when Massa pitted for the
final time he was not put on the soft tyres he had favoured from his first
stint which he thought was going to happen. Staying on the mediums meant he
didn’t quite have the immediate pace he needed to stay ahead of Alonso who
stopped six laps later and was put on the softs which enabled him to instantly
set about attacking the likes of Lewis Hamilton whom Massa had been trying to
track down again.
Whatever the situation at Ferrari it was an incredible bit
of driving when Alonso kept his foot to the floor exiting the pit lane despite
almost being baulked by Jean-Eric Vergne’s Toro Rosso and having to jump the
kerbs which resulted in him being checked out in hospital after a 25g impact.
Alonso eventually finished fifth while Massa claimed eighth.
Completing the podium today were Mark Webber in the other Red
Bull and the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg. Rosberg has held an edge over Hamilton
for the last few races and this continued today which is impressive as Lewis is
usually very strong around here. At the start Rosberg got ahead of Webber after
yet another poor start by the Aussie, but Webber is tenacious and never let the
silver car out of his sight. He DRS’d Rosberg to claim a solid second spot for
a Red Bull 1-2 while Rosberg just about kept clear of Romain Grosjean.
It’s been a strong end to the season for Webber, his pace
has certainly lifted as his career winds down, but it’s saying something that
in years gone by this would have probably won him a couple of races, this year
though Vettel is just on a completely different level. Rosberg too is having a
strong end to the year and is now only 16 points behind his team mate Lewis
Hamilton who could only manage seventh.
Lewis struggled today, slipping back at the start before
generally being out manoeuvred or stuck behind other cars like Gutierrez or
Force India’s. He was quite downbeat about it which is expected because if a
Mercedes was going to challenge the Red Bull’s this weekend you’d have thought
it would be him. He’s still having braking issues though which will hopefully
be sorted to his liking in 2014.
The Force India’s were back on fantastic form. Adrian Sutil
ran strongly, his long first stint meant he was mixing it with the front
runners for a long time before his tyres ran out of grip. Although he was lucky
to keep his one point for tenth place after he looked to overtake Pastor
Maldonado off the track.
The real Force India star though was Paul di Resta who
regained his fantastic form from earlier in the year. Qualifying 11th,
he ran the softs to lap 20 then ran the last 35 laps on the mediums but kept them
fresh enough to keep a decent pace and also do battle when needed. Alonso got
him on the last few laps as he ran fifth, but he kept his sixth place from
Lewis who just could not get past.
It was a timely performance from the Scot who has been
overlooked with rumours he might not even be in F1 next year. The last two
races will have nicely reminded people that di Resta is a driver who should be
and deserves to be in Formula 1.
Romain Grosjean continued his good form with a mature drive
to fourth place while his team mate Kimi Raikkonen went banzai after starting
from the back of the grid due to his Lotus failing a front floor deflection
test.
At the first corner he went for a gap inside van der Garde
which was always
going to close. His right front took a pretty tame hit but the
angle hurt it more and Kimi was out of a weekend he nearly didn’t attend at
all. At least he’ll be going to the final two races after discussions with the
owners of Lotus, but to not have been paid at all this year just goes to show
how much passions Kimi has for the sport.
Sergio Perez picked up ninth place and two points but it had
looked like McLaren were going to get a lot more from the weekend. Jenson
Button was out of it after damaging his front wing, but Perez had looked
particularly quick all weekend but it just didn’t work out for him in the end.
Sauber meanwhile lost ground to Force India after what could
have been a great result was stopped due to a drive through penalty for an
unsafe pit release where Nico Hulkenberg nearly collected Perez. A shame
because Hulk had looked very quick all weekend and looked set to finish ahead
of the Ferrari’s at one point.
A lot went on behind the runaway leader, so next time you
see Vettel leading into the first corner, don’t despair, the race for victory
may be over but behind there’s everything to play for. And as I’ve written
several times now, no one can win forever but while he is it’s best just to
admire someone who is truly at the top of his game.
Final result:
1. Sebastian Vettel - Red Bull
2. Mark Webber - Red Bull
3. Nico Rosberg - Mercedes
4. Romain Grosjean - Lotus
5. Fernando Alonso - Ferrari
6. Paul di Resta - Force India
7. Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes
8. Felipe Massa - Ferrari
9. Sergio Perez - McLaren
10. Adrian Sutil - Force India
11. Pastor Maldonado - Williams
12. Jenson Button - McLaren
13. Esteban Gutierrez - Sauber
14. Nico Hulkenberg - Sauber
15. Valtteri Bottas - Williams
16. Daniel Ricciardo - Toro Rosso
17. Jean-Eric Vergne - Toro Rosso
18. Giedo van der Garde - Caterham
19. Charles Pic - Caterham
20. Jules Bianchi - Marussia
21. Max Chilton - Marussia
R. Kimi Raikkonen - Lotus - Accident
all photo's taken from autosport.com
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