A review of the Brazilian GP

As the Chequered Flag came down at the Brazilian GP it brought down the curtains on the Formula One paraphernalia of 2013 spread over eight months with 19 grueling races across five continents.

A season which was clearly dominated by one man Sebastian Vettel, bid goodbye to 2013 in style recording another win, his ninth consecutive win and 13 of the season, both achievements being recorded equaling one’s (former of Alberto Ascari and the latter of Michael Schumacher).

Sebastian Vettel went into the record books once again after winning the last race of the season in Brazil.

Formula One bid goodbye to Mark Webber,who finished second in Brazil, after a 12 year career in the sport.

The Formula One fraternity also bid goodbye to the V8 engines along with Mark Webber, who finished second in the race fighting after fighting hard in his Red-Bull and overwhelmed by emotions in his final race in Formula One.

The veteran Aussie heads to Le Man’s for the World Endurance Championship with Prosche in 2014. Fernando Alonso fought hard in his Ferrari and finally managed to get a podium finish ending a drought of five races, but couldn’t prevent Mercedes from taking second place in the Constructor’s tally after quite a change of fortunes of drivers from both teams during the race.

Here’s a review of the final race of the season.

Vettel falters at the Start

Nico Rosberg was quick to take the lead from Sebastian Vettel at the start of the race.

The race surprisingly started on a dry track but with a good cloud cover over the circuit 60 percent chance of rain was predicted during the race. Vettel wasn’t able to get off to a flying start as he did in the last few races and that helped Nico Rosberg move up taking the inside route.

Teammate Hamilton also followed a similar strategy and quickly moved up the order into 3rd pushing Alonso and Webber down the order. The other drivers who gained positions on the opening lap were Felipe Massa and Nico Hulkenberg moving up the order to 6th and 7th. The drivers who lost positions at start were Hekki Kovalainen in Lotus and Paul Di Resta in the Force India slipping down to 15th and 17th respectively.

For Rosberg the joy was short lived as Vettel kept up the pressure to his countryman and overtook his shaky and vulnerable Mercedes at start-finish straight while Alonso battled his way back past Hamilton in the second Mercedes for 3rd.

Webber also muscled his way past Hamilton for 4th with both the Mercedes clearly struggling for grip and pace after promising starts. A major surprise was Jenson Button in the Mclaren who had gained four places to move into tenth.

Romain Grosjean, who started 6th on the grid, was the first drop-out in the Lotus with a blown out engine on lap 4. The Frenchman was unable to continue with his brilliant streak of podium finishes. Alonso made progress into 2nd place catching up and overtaking a remarkably slow Rosberg with Webber following suite in the Red-Bull pushing the German further down to 4th by lap 7.

Hamilton moves up the order

Lewis Hamilton moved up the order in the initial laps despite some trouble with his teammate Rosberg.

Rosberg looking in deep trouble and had to give way to his teammate Hamilton who was being threatened by Massa in the Ferrari. Hamilton moved swiftly to catch up with Alonso who had slipped to third behind Webber.

The McLaren’s looking to garner some pride in the final race battled through the field as Button moved into 8th overtaking Daniel Ricciardo and teammate Sergio Perez, in his final race for the British team, got into 11th place after starting in 19th. Perez moved into the points overtaking Valtteri Bottas in the Williams. Massa moved into 5th ahead of the ever slowing Rosberg and Button overtook a Hulkenberg in the Sauber for 7th place.

On lap 15 the teams went ahead with their first round of pit-stops. The pit stop reshuffled the order as several drivers moved up the order while the others struggled. Kovalainen in the Lotus made his move and went past Jean Eric Vergne (Toro Rosso), Adrian Sutil (Force India) and Bottas. Jenson Button, on lap 22, showed glimpses of a veteran and a last year race winner as he overtook Ricciardo, Pastor Maldonado (Williams) and Esteban Gutierrez (Sauber) within a lap and moved into 7th before managing to go past Nico Rosberg in the pits.

On lap 24, a slow pit-stop from the ever so quick Red-Bull team pushed the veteran Webber behind Alonso but the gritty Aussie nullified the error re-passing the Spaniard 2 laps later.

Massa unlucky at home

Felipe Massam driving in his last race for Ferrari, was unlucky to have been handed over a drive through penalty which eventually helped Mercedes take second place in the Constructor’s table.

Massa who was in 4th and under pressure from Hamilton, was slapped with a drive through penalty after both Mercedes drivers complained about him on the pit-radio that the Brazilian crossed the white line with all four wheels on the pit straight leading into the pit entrance. A visually frustrated Massa, on his last race with Ferrari, ventured into the pits to serve his penalty on lap 34 before rejoining the race behind Sergio Perez in 8th.

Hamilton charge slows down

Mercedes suffered a setback on lap 47 as Bottas in the Williams collided with the Mercedes of Hamilton causing the British driver to suffer a puncture and forcing Bottas to retire from the race having lost a tyre. Hamilton was clearly misinformed on the fast pace of the Williams and was handed a drive through penalty(four laps later) for causing a collision.

There was action again in the pits as Vettel pitted but Red-Bull team was found napping once again, and his lead looked under threat. The communication glitch was caused as Red-Bull called in both their drivers in for a stop preempting a safety car after the Bottas-Hamilton tangle hoping to make way for both the drivers who were separated by a 12.5 seconds difference.

There was no safety car and Webber had to wait for his stop as he got queued up behind Vettel amid a tyre confusion in the pits. Fortunately for Vettel, Alonso also pitted on the same lap and the German was able to maintain his grid position despite the drama.

Mclaren lucky at last

Sergio Perez along with teammate Jenson Button managed their to get a best finish of the season for Mclaren in the final race of the season

With incidents keeping the front runners busy both the McLaren’s gained quite a few track positions with Button in 4th and Perez in 6th in what was to be the best finish of the season for the podium stricken team. On lap 58, Hamilton who was forced out of the points came back in 9th place overtaking Ricciardo to help Mercedes fight for its second place in the Constructor’s tally.

The final retirement of the race was Caterham’s Charles Pic who suffered a suspension damage on lap 61. There could have been more casualties after Vergne and Maldonado collided on lap 66. Vergne took the inside line on Maldonado, who closed the door resulting in the collision, took a 360 degree turn before rejoining the race behind the Toro Rosso driver.

Vettel crossed the line on lap 71 to collect the race victory and the 39th win of his career. The German took the chequered flag 10.4 seconds ahead of his team mate Mark Webber.

Thus ended the 2013 season with an action packed race. As teams and drivers take a four month hiatus Formula One fans have already begun the countdown to 2014 which promises to be a cracker of a season with new V6 engines, new rules and new driver line-ups.