So now the fact has to be faced: the season 2013 is officially over! All 19 races have been completed and the world championship was secured by Sebastian Vettel already in India a long time ago... Knowing it was the last race of the season at hand, I focused on enjoying the race today as much as I could.
The start was surprising. Sebastian on pole got a poor start, which really isn´t typical of the German. Rosberg stole the lead from Sebastian and Mercedes´s Hamilton starting from P5 stormed to P3. Bottas in his Williams got an excellent start and the Finn made his way from P13 up to P10. Heikki Kovalainen on the other hand had another lousy start and lost 4 positions right away. I have to admit I really hoped that Heikki would have done better than that... But I´m sure he did the best he could at that moment and you can´t ask for anything more.
Sebastian didn´t want to settle for P2. Already before the opening lap had been completed, the German had made his way past Rosberg and took the lead back! Alonso in his Ferrari also managed to overtake Hamilton and made his way up to 3rd. On lap 4 Alonso kept storming: the Spaniard moved past Rosberg and was already 2nd in the race! This was a fatal lap for Grosjean at the wheel of his E21: the Frenchman faced an engine failure and his race was over.
Rosberg in his Mercedes seemed to be struggling with his pace. Webber got past him as well and in no time Hamilton was right in Rosberg´s tail. Soon Hamilton passed his team-mate, who had been told on the team radio not to hold up his team-mate. Webber, who was driving the last race of his F1 career seemed to be flying and the Australian could match Sebastian´s lap times. Webber challenged Alonso for the second place and managed to overtake the Ferrari driver. Once again it looked like Red Bull dominance indeed.
By lap 24 all top drivers had pitted for a fresh set of tyres. We saw different tyre strategies: Alonso and Rosberg switched to hard tyres whilst the Red Bull duo continued with the softer compound. Alonso had got past Webber during the first pit stops but instantly after the pit stop Webber took his position back. Massa was driving an excellent farewell race for Ferrari and the Brazilian was already in P4 until he was handed a drive-through penalty for crossing the white line at the pit entry! That ruined Massa´s fantastic race.
Lap 47 was very unlucky for the Finnish Williams driver. Bottas got hit by Hamilton, which caused the rear-left tyre of Bottas´s car to come away. Hamilton got a puncture due to the collision but he managed to make his way in to the pits. A moment later also Hamilton was handed a drive-through penalty for causing a collision. Such a shame that Bottas´s race was over, I believe he could have fought for points today.
I had a strong feeling yesterday that Sebastian was going to take the 9th consecutive win and I was soooo right! Sebastian drove to the chequered flag as the winner and his team-mate Webber finished 2nd some 10 seconds behind. Alonso finished 3rd. McLaren had an impressive race as Button finished 4th and Perez 6th! Both of the McLaren drivers started to the race from the midfield so excellent performance from both of them. Rosberg split the McLaren duo in P5. Massa finished 7th, Hulkenberg 8th, Hamilton 9th and Ricciardo 10th. Against all odds there was no actual rain at Interlagos today! Only a few drops but no need for the intermediate tyres at any point.
The end of the race was emotional. Sebastian continued his tradition and made some doughnuts after clinching his win. His team-mate Webber on the other hand took off his helmet and just enjoyed the last moments of driving an F1 car! New challenges await next season: Webber continues his racing career as a Porsche driver and the young and talented Daniel Ricciardo will partner Sebastian at Red Bull next year. A huge thanks to Mark Webber for a staggering career in F1 and all the very best for the future, what ever it brings!
I feel so empty! The season is over, which means no blog posts for a while :´( I´m kind of addicted to writing my thoughts on Formula 1 (if I had a chance I would do this for a living!) so I´ll face some serious withdrawal symptoms sooner or later ;) Unless I accidentally come across Sebastian Vettel in the street, which would give me an urgent need to write down my thoughts, hahaha! ;D Next season means a wind of change. I dream of a possibility to go and watch the winter tests either at Jerez or at Bahrain but at the moment it doesn´t look very realistic that it could actually come true. But you always have to have dreams... especially Formula 1 related dreams :D
I don´t know how many people have actually been reading my blog this year but huge thanks for everyone for following! I´ll be back whenever there´s anything interesting to write about Formula 1.... Luckily there always seems to be something coming up! ;D
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