Before the start all the drivers on the dirty side of the grid were worried about the track being extremely slippery. Ferrari team weren´t only worried: they turned their concern into action. They broke the seal of Massa´s gear box to cause the Brazilian a five-place grid penalty to make Alonso 7th on the grid! I couldn´t believe my eyes when I read that on the web site! No other team would have done anything like that! I know Formula 1 is team sport but there goes a line somewhere, at least in my opinion. I may be naive but in my opinion you should achieve the grid position with your driving and your speed, not with any questionable tricks at the garage! I can´t help wondering how Massa agrees to do these things year after year... A trick like that wouldn´t be possible at any other team but Ferrari and this really isn´t a compliment for Massa...!
However, Alonso got to start 7th on the grid on the clean side of the track. The start was thrilling. Luckily Vettel was able to reach the first corner first and maintained his lead. Webber was 2nd and Hamilton 3rd. Kimi in P4 got a lousy start so the dirty side of the track was as fatal as expected. Kimi also had an incident with one of the Force Indias but luckily his car wasn´t damaged and he started making an impressive recovery from the bad start. The Iceman snatched position by position and made his way up to 4th before his pit stop. On lap 13 he made a staggering move on Force India´s Nico Hulkenberg and overtook the German at turn 1. The Iceman´s driving was a pleasure to watch: he fought for every position but did it in a very fair way! What´s absolutely amazing and mind-boggling about Kimi´s driving is that no matter how tight a battle he has with somebody, you can always count on him leaving the other car enough room so he doesn´t do anything stupid. That is a quality you can´t take for granted in Formula 1!
On lap 18 there was some Red Bull drama. Webber had been overtaken by Hamilton and suddenly the Australian was out of the race due to a technical failure. It turned out to be another fatal alternator failure, which definitely isn´t good news for Red Bull... After Webber was out of the race it seemed that Alonso would have every opportunity to make it on to the podium and make the championship fight go on to Brazil...
Alonso had a delay at his pit stop as there were difficulties to put on his right-rear tyre. And the Ferrari driver wasn´t the only one to suffer from that. Kimi had a good chance to maybe pass Alonso at the pits but the Iceman also had a delay at his pit stop which cost him several positions! He rejoined the track right behind Massa. The Brazilian pitted a couple of laps later. Massa had difficulties to get his tyres warmed up and that was Kimi´s chance. Kimi made another fantastic overtaking move at turn one and got past Massa! Their battle went on before some laps later Kimi went wide and Massa took his position back.
Hamilton decreased his gap to Vettel in the lead tenth by tenth. Finally the Briton was less than a second behind the Red Bull driver and was allowed to used DRS... On lap 42 Vettel had to lap Karthikeyan and that was Hamilton´s chance. In the DRS zone he managed to overtake Sebastian and take the lead. Sebastian tried to catch him again but couldn´t get close enough. At the chequered flag only 6 tenths of a second separated Hamilton and Vettel so it was an impressively close fight indeed. Alonso finished 3rd followed by his team-mate Massa. Also Button had been able to overtake Kimi on lap 46 after a tight but fair wheel-to-wheel battle. Button finished 5th and Kimi 6th. Red Bull sealed the constructors´ championship for the third time in-a-row!
So the fight for the championship isn´t over! This means the world champion will be crowned not until next Sunday at Interlagos. Sebastian has a 13-point lead over Alonso but that is anything but a safe lead! Anything can happen in the final race. There are a few concerns in my mind to be honest. The weather is definitely one of them. In tricky conditions unpredictable things can happen. Then there´s this technical aspect... What if Sebastian faces another alternator failure in Brazil? That would be absolutely devastating in terms of the championship! And I´m also worried about what Ferrari might think up next... The trick they did at Austin proves they´re ready to do anything to make Alonso the world champion! So I´m very nervously waiting for the crucial weekend at Interlagos. Victory at Austin would have given Sebastian a more secured lead but he did his very best and Hamilton was simply quicker under the Texas sun. So it´s still wide open... All I know it´s going to be a nerve-wrecking week! ;)
Ei kommentteja:
Lähetä kommentti