Month: November 2013

Vettel won the US GP in a dominat form after a perfect start from Pole making it a new record of 8 races won in a row in one season, beating Schumacher´s previous record. Second place went to a fast starting Romain Grosjean who managed to keep behind Mark Webber´s Red Bull despite heavy preasure all the way through the race. Hamilton managed to run into 3rd place at the beginning of the race but drop one position to finish fourth surviving a scare before the start of the race when his brake pedal felt akward and alsa heavy wear of his tires.

Alonso pulled a nice recovery launching from 6th place, dropping one position at the start and then passing Nico Hulkenberg at the end to take 5th place. The Sauber driver showed excellent pace and during the race managed to overtake Alonso but the spaniard put some fresh rubber and took the position pack and at some point threatened to catch struggling Hamilton which never happened. Mexican Sergio Perez attacked all the way through the race and eventually finished in a strong 7th just ahead of Finland´s Valtteri Bottas who also shone for Williams. Mercedes´ Nico Rosberg had a good pace and long runs that allowed him to get into the points in 9th after a poor qualifying that saw him start 14th. Last point went to Jenson Button after a strong fithe with Toro Rosso´s Ricciardo and Vergne and Sauber´s Esteban Gutierrez who finishid 14th when he had contact at turn 13 of the last lap causing him to spin.

Full Results:

1. Sebastien Vettel
2. Romain Grosjean
3. Mark Webber
4. Lewis Hamilton
5. Fernando Alonso
6. Nico Hulkenberg
7. Sergio Perez
8. Valtteri Bottas
9. Nico Rosberg
10. Jenson Button
11. Daniel Ricciardo
12. Jean Vergne
13. Felipe Massa
14. Esteban Gutiérrez
15. Heikki Kovalainen
16. Paul Di Resta
17. Pastor Maldonado
18. Jules Bianchi
19. Giego Van Der Garde
20. Charles Pic
21. Max Chilton
DNF Adrian Sutil

After a hard fought Pole, Vettel heard over the radio “Shake & Bake”, to what he agreed only that there was no slingshot and his teammate was his major threat…  Pole wasn´t esay for certain, it was payback to Mark´s pole from a couple of weeks ago in Abu Dhabi.  But perhaps this time payback will be tomorrow for Mark? One thing is for sure, the Red Bulls seem unbeatable at the moment.  Grosjean meanwhile is extremely happy with his recent up in form, finally he´s getting to another stage, dueling at the top but with the Constructors Championship in mind and with a 5th from Hamilton and a 6th for Alonso, Lotus may have the upper hand in the catch game they have at hand.   Not only that, Kovalainen´s position is way better than the other teammates Rosberg in 14th an Massa in 15th!

Qualifying results:

2013 FORMULA 1 UNITED STATES GRAND PRIX

1 1 Sebastian Vettel           Red Bull Racing-Renault      1:36.338
2 2 Mark Webber              Red Bull Racing-Renault       1:36.441
3 8 Romain Grosjean         Lotus-Renault                        1:37.155
4 11 Nico Hulkenberg        Sauber-Ferrari                       1:37.296
5 10 Lewis Hamilton         Mercedes                                 1:37.345
6 3 Fernando Alonso         Ferrari                                      1:37.376
7 6 Sergio Perez                 McLaren-Mercedes                1:37.452
8 7 Heikki Kovalainen       Lotus-Renault                          1:37.715
9 17 Valtteri Bottas           Williams-Renault                     1:37.836
10 12 Esteban Gutierrez  Sauber-Ferrari                         1:38.034
11 19 Daniel Ricciardo       STR-Ferrari                             1:38.131
12 14 Paul di Resta           Force India-Mercedes             1:38.139
13 5 Jenson Button           McLaren-Mercedes                 1:38.217
14 9 Nico Rosberg             Mercedes                                   1:38.364
15 4 Felipe Massa             Ferrari                                       1:38.592
16 18 Jean-Eric Vergne   STR-Ferrari                             1:38.696
17 15 Adrian Sutil             Force India-Mercedes            1:39.250
18 16 Pastor Maldonado  Williams-Renault                    1:39.351
19 21 Giedo van der Garde Caterham-Renault              1:40.491
20 22 Jules Bianchi          Marussia-Cosworth                 1:40.528
21 20 Charles Pic             Caterham-Renault                   1:40.596
22 23 Max Chilton           Marussia-Cosworth                 1:41.401

Note – Button penalised 3 grid spots for passing under red flags in FP1. Pic penalised 5 for unscheduled gearbox change.

Sebastien Vettel dominates qualifying for Red Bull with a 1:36.338 in a dramatic form, passing the line last and demoting Webber to 2nd by little more than a tenth of a second.  Third place went to Romain Grosjean who placed his Lotus just ahead of the Sauber of Nico Hulkenberg and Lewis Hamilton.  Fernando Alonso didn´t shine either with a 6th place followed by an inspired Perez in the McLaren.  8th place went to Heikki Kovalainen, 9th for Bottas and 10th to Esteban Gutierrez who didn´t come out in order to have fresher rubber tomorrow.

Vettel dominated the 2nd qualifying session with a 1:37.065 on the medium compound tyre in front of Webber Alonso, Bottas, Grosjean, Hulkenberg, Hamilton, Gutierrez, Perez and Kovalainen.

Now it´s time for the final shoot out. Ricciardo, Di Resta, Button, Rosberg, Massa and Vergne were out of the top 10.

Williams´driver Valtteri Bottas lead the way in the first part of Qualifying with a 1:38.516.  Force India´s Adrian Sutil, Williams´Pastor Maldonado, Caterham´s Giego Van Der Garde, Marussia´s Jules Bianchi, Caterham´s Charles Pic and Marussia´s Max Chilton were left out of the 2nd Qualifying session.

Sutil stopped on track seemingly having brake issues with his Sahara Force India.

Vettel kept up flying through the 3rd and final practice ahead of today´s qualifying practice with a 1:36.733 almost 2 seconds faster than last year´s record.  Webber proved the Red Bull will be hard to beat accomplishing 2nd fastest time just 2 tenths of a second slower than his teammate.  Rounding up the top 3 was Mercedes´ Lewis Hamilton, last year´s winner followed by an impressive Nico Hulkenberg that set the 4th fastest time with the Sauber.

11 drivers were within one second from Vettel´s fastest time which means it will be very close for qualifying.  Red Bull has already won both Championships but 2nd place is still wide open between Mercedes and Ferrari with a difference of only 11 points.  Mathematically speaking, Lotus is still in the fight too, 26 points off Ferrari with still 86 points to play between the USA and Brazil.

Hamilton expressed his determination from last thursday to go for pole, he said it would be almost impossible to match the Red Bulls if they parted in front but that he could have a chance if they were behind in a track that makes overtaking a bit difficult.

Kovalainen meanwhile kept the rythm too even though this time around teammate Grosjean got a better laptime.  Practice times, like I said before, are always unreliable to make a clear pronostic for the race even though Red Bull looks set to make it hard again on the other teams as Constructor´s Championship Points are very much in the fight.

Who do you think will win it?

Sebastien Vettel uncovered Red Bull´s horns in second practice to claim 1st spot with a 1:37.305 wich takes another second off his record from last year at COTA (1:39.347). Team mate Mark Webber ended just 1tenth of a second slower followed by the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton completing the only 4 cars to go below the 1:38 minute barrier.

Fifth place Heikki Kovalainen surprised again as he quickly adapted to the Lotus and posted a very respectable 1.38.073. The Lotus Team are pleased with his result so far and this only proves again how good and ready for a second chance in a top team Heikki is. The Saubers finished 6th and 7th with Gutierrez and Hulkenberg followed by the Lotus of Romain Grosjean. Button had posted the 2nd fastest time in P1 but only managed to finish 9th in the McLaren improving his first session time by only 1 tenth of a second. Alonso rounded up the top 10 without improving his time but most doing some long runs covering 33 laps in total.

Now it´s just wait and see, with one more practice programmed for tomorrow at 9am and then Qualifying at 1pm. Teams will be finetunning tonight in order to better the balance of the cars since passing at COTA is really difficult and a good qualifying position will definetely be key to success.

Ferrari´s Fernando Alonso took control of first practice at Circuit Of The Americas just ahead of McLaren´s Jenson Button after a delayed start and then a red flag because of heavy fog that impeded the Medic Helicopter to land at the track.

Valtteri Bottas and Esteban Gutierrez put their Williams and Sauber in third and fourth behind Button and ahead of the Mercedes of Roosberg and Hamilton.

Heikki Kovalainen started off well at Lotus after almost a year without racing and without being familiar to the car just 2 tenths of a second slower than teammate Romain Grosjean.

Times are not that representative in first practice as drivers usually improve 2 or 3 seconds towards qualifying on saturday but they are a good base for the times they could be posting on race conditions.

The german Sebastian Vettel finished a distant 18th on the time sheet with a 1:40.662 just ahead of the Marussias and the Caterhams compared to the 1:38.343 of leader Alonso. Times are proving tight as usual but the chance of rain is almost gone so they only promise to drop as we can only point out at the record from last year already gone by a full second as track conditions are a lot better this year.

2nd practice will take time in one hour at 1pm Austin time.