US GP: Vettel takes eighth straight victory at Austin

Sebastian Vettel: Victorious again

Sebastian Vettel dominated the 2013 US Grand Prix from lights to flag to take his eighth straight victory and 12th of the season. However, this win wasn’t as dominant as some of his recent victories with the German being forced to spend more time conserving the tyres to ensure that he could finish the race on a one stop strategy. Nevertheless, it was as sweet as any of those victories, if not more, and that was clear from his post race comments on team radio.

Romain Grosjean finished 6.2 seconds behind in second place to equal his career best finish. This was Grosjean’s fourth podium in five races and fifth of the season. Mark Webber tried as hard as he could to steal that second place from the Frenchman but had to settle in for third due to excessive tyre wear. The Australian again had one of those starts and was down in fourth place after the end of first lap. But while he was able to past the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton on lap 13, it wasn’t an easy affair when it came to passing the Lotus of Romain Grosjean.

Last year’s winner Lewis Hamilton could finish no higher than fourth after complaining about the tyres throughout the race. He had Fernando Alonso on his back for quite a few laps before the Spaniard had to himself slow down and take care of his tyres. Alonso then had to keep a charging Nico Hulkenberg at bay who initially passed him on first corner but went too wide giving the Spaniard a chance to regain fifth. Either way it was another great for the German and even better for Sauber as Force India failed to score a single point in this race.

Two drivers who were equally impressive were Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas. Perez pleased the crowd with some interesting maneuvers as he finished in seventh place, days after McLaren announced that they are dropping the Mexican at the end of the season. Bottas meanwhile scored his first career points after flying throughout the weekend. He managed to add four points to his and Williams’ tally who in turn haven’t scored a point since July’s Hungarian Grand Prix. His teammate who had been complaining throughout the weekend finished a lap down in 17th place.

Behind the impressive Finn came Nico Rosberg who made his way from outside of top 10 to take ninth at the chequered flag. Jenson Button came in from further down the field and passed Daniel Ricciardo in the closing stages of the race to take the final championship point.

Jean Eric Vergne finished just behind his teammate in 12th while Felipe Massa had another poor day in the office as he had to pit twice to complete the 56 laps of the US Grand Prix. Esteban Gutierrez was 14th while Heikki Kovalainen’s impressive form on Friday and Saturday couldn’t be transferred into points on Sunday. The Finn, who took part in his first full race weekend since Brazil 2012 got a poor start and was out of top 10 on the first lap. He then had to make an unscheduled stop to change his front wing, meaning he could finish no better than 15th.

Paul di Resta made a great start and was ninth on the opening lap but any chances of a good result were hampered when he had to pit the second time on lap 50. His teammate Adrian Sutil made contact with Williams’ Pastor Maldonado on first lap of the race and ended up in the barriers, bringing out the safety car. He was the sole retirement from the race.