Top 10 drivers of 2012

So here we are at the top, everyone this year had a chance to show their quality, but who made the biggest impression? 25-11 can be found here, but these are my top 10 drivers of the year.

10. Michael Schumacher (Mercedes)

Schumacher’s come back is at an end and it’s fair to say it didn’t go according to plan. There were far too many incidents, mistakes that he just wouldn’t have made before, and most important of all his outright speed had diminished over time.

This season he had the worst reliability of anyone on the grid but yet after all that, he still showed what he is, an out and out racer. He’s out qualified Rosberg 10 times this year, was more often than not faster in the races, and took probably the best pole lap of the season in Monaco. Such a shame he had a grid penalty for that race. 

He said he learnt how to lose in his second career, but I think he also takes great credit for never giving up and for showing he could still mix it with today's drivers, some of whom are 20 years younger. He’ll always remain a legend, and his drive in Brazil in his final race, charging from the back into the points showed true class; a legend.

9. Sergio Perez (Sauber)

At one point in the season he’d have been much higher up but from when he was announced as Lewis Hamilton’s replacement at McLaren he seemed to be trying to prove too much and failed to score in the last six races through a few too many mistakes. Hopefully this is not a sign of how he’ll handle the pressure he’ll get at McLaren.

Before then he was brilliant a lot of the time scoring three podiums, but he also should have had a win in Malaysia. There’s still a lot of untapped potential there, especially in qualifying but he’s not the finished article, hopefully McLaren will give him the time to flourish, because he can be brilliant; his drives in Malaysia and especially in Italy were great charges through the field.

8. Felipe Massa (Ferrari)

At one point this season Massa would have barely made the top 15, but the second half of the year showed that perhaps Felipe wasn’t done yet. He scored points in all of the last 10 races including two podiums. His form improved once Ferrari announced he had a seat for 2013, but there had already been glimpses of the old 2008/9 Massa before his accident.

He actually out-paced and out-raced Alonso in the last two Grand Prix of the year, I always thought Massa could challenge Fernando on a more consistent basis and providing Ferrari and Fernando allow it he should be able to give the Spaniard more of a challenge next year. It’s been a good recovery which seems to have put him back on the upward curve again.

7. Mark Webber (Red Bull)

Webber seems to have a slight edge over Vettel when the car isn’t quite as good as it could be, he can grind out the results. His two victories at Monaco and Silverstone were some of the most impressive drives of the year, especially his charging down of Alonso at the British track.

He was 10 points ahead of Vettel at the half way point, but it was around then that the German got the edge on him. Red Bull improved the car, and Webber can’t quite exploit the maximum potential of a great car as well as Vettel. The points dried up albeit a lot of that was due to unreliability but he also didn’t seem to have the pace that Vettel showed was there. Still, he can push Vettel, and given the circumstances he can still be a title challenger.

6. Jenson Button (McLaren)

Three wins for Jenson this year is the same amount he scored last year when I rated him the 2^nd best driver of the year. It started so well with the win in Australia it looked like he was carrying on his form from 2011, but after that the main difference this year is that he was absolutely trounced by Lewis Hamilton for most of the season. The points don’t show it but he was soundly beaten, not helped by him completely losing his way with how to set up the car to use the Pirelli’s usefully.

However on his day he can be unbeatable, he was totally untouchable in Belgium but those days need to come more consistently if he’s to mount another title challenge. He’s effectively a team leader next year so if McLaren have managed to design a car around him he can do the job; he’s certainly more than capable.

5. Nico Hulkenberg (Force India)

Yes it is a bit of a surprise to have him up this high, but whereas the likes of Webber and Button were a bit inconsistent with their performances Hulkenberg was on a steady upward curve that resulted in him nearly winning the Brazilian Grand Prix. He had been on the side lines for a year so it wasn’t unexpected that di Resta had the edge over him at first.

But slowly and surely Hulkenberg emerged as the star driver of the team. His performances actually seemed to make di Resta’s worse, which is saying something as the Scot is very highly rated. Nico culminated his year with a brilliant drive on slicks in wet conditions at Interlagos leading for the vast majority before two small slip ups saw him collide with Lewis Hamilton. He still recovered to 5^th.

It’s been a good year, although his somewhat puzzling decision to switch to Sauber for 2013 when Force India were emerging better by the end might halt his rise to the top for a while.

4. Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus)

Now this is how you make a comeback! Ok, he is 10 years younger than a certain Michael Schumacher and was out of F1 for a year less, but still this was a hugely impressive year. Up until the last few races he was a genuine title contender such was his consistency.

He’s still not quite as fast in qualifying as he once was, and he’s not quite as decisive as he could be when overtaking; he almost certainly lost a win in Bahrain because of that. But generally his race craft is fantastic, he delivers what the car is capable of in the races and you can’t ask for much more than that.

He scored seven podiums and scored in every race but one. His win in Abu Dhabi was brilliantly controlled, he knew what he was doing, something he had no hesitation in telling his team on the radio.

He was on it as if he’d never been away, his drives in Bahrain and Hungary onto the podium were truly brilliant. He is certainly going to be even better next year and if Lotus can develop their car a bit better next year he should be a championship challenger.

3. Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull)

There’s one reason I’m putting Vettel third which is he was in a Red Bull, and they were the best team of the year. He drove brilliantly again this year and as I’ve written elsewhere is a more than deserving world champion for the third consecutive time. But two other drivers above him had a car which was never the fastest and a team which felt he shouldn’t win too often.

Vettel was again fantastic, his car was not great in the first half of the season, but he managed a win and a few other podiums to keep himself in the title hunt just like everyone else was doing. He was always there, and when the opportunity presented itself with a car which became the best in the field he exploited it fully and took pole and victory as if it were 2011. Four wins in succession pushed him to the top of the standings after he’d been 44 points down earlier in the year.

But he can drive through the pack too and his recovery from last on the first lap of the final race after being spun round was fantastic, a brilliant champion’s drive that demonstrated just how determined he is to keep on winning.

2. Lewis Hamilton (McLaren)

If you don’t count his penalty in Spain which dropped him to the back of the grid, Hamilton recorded 8 pole positions and was in the top 3 on the grid 15 times. The closest anyone else came to him was Vettel with 6 poles and 10 top 3 starting positions. This was how demonstrably fast Lewis was this year.

He won 4 races but he should have won at least 7, twice dropping out with mechanical failure while being taken out in the other. He started the season with the consistency that has made Alonso so remarkable this year. He kept on scoring the points even when his team were trying to throw them away with various pit stop problems in the first 7 races.

But then a misjudgement with fighting Maldonado in Valencia and various other pace, puncture and mechanical issues over the second half derailed his campaign. 2012 should have been so much more for him, but this is motor racing. But how good was Hamilton this year?

USA Grand Prix should answer that. Vettel was fastest all through practice and brilliantly quick in qualifying. Lewis pulled out a lap that nearly got him pole, he then tracked Vettel relentlessly through most of the race and when the opportunity presented itself he made the move and held Vettel off. It was pure racing, and he deserved more from the year. Whether his move to Mercedes will give him anymore anytime soon is very much open to debate.

1. Fernando Alonso (Ferrari)

Who else but Fernando? The Ferrari was over a second slower in testing, when they got to the first race in Australia it wasn’t any better. He dragged that car up to 5^th in the race after starting 12^th. In Malaysia it rained, the Ferrari came alive, he grabbed the opportunity and took the win. That he went on to take a further 2 victories and 10 more podiums is a brilliant achievement.

This was Alonso in 2012, taking every opportunity available and maximising it as best he could. People have raved about his win from 12^th on the grid in Valencia, but to me his best victory was in Germany. After taking a pole position in wet conditions which the Ferrari liked, the dry race should have seen him drop back.

But he managed the gap behind him and controlled the race beautifully, making sure he was out of DRS range just enough, knowing which parts of the track to be fast to keep him at arms length, and when he could look after the tyres. It was a fantastically judged drive.

Let’s not kid ourselves though, by race five Ferrari had done a pretty good job and for the majority of the year it’s race pace easily made it a podium capable car. But it was in qualifying where it lacked the most, and it was Alonso’s ability to always make sure that despite his starting position the race pace available could be used to forge ahead and into the top 3 and he did it time and again.

We of course can also talk about his two start accidents which cost him the title, they weren’t his fault, but neither were Vettel’s alternator failures in 2 races. In the end Alonso put together what was quite the bravura performance of the year, he shouldn’t have been in with a chance of the title really, but he made it happen. That he didn’t win the title doesn’t take away from the fact he put together an almost perfect season of Formula 1.

all photo's taken from autosport.com

Top drivers of 2012: 25 - 11

This season has been incredible and almost everyone on the grid has had their chance to shine. It's always a matter of opinion about how to judge which drivers have done best over the course of the year. But if you go with the theory that the best drivers end up being in the best cars, then that's one way to start. 

However it is of course possible to see drivers who have had an exceptional year, for instance last season Heikki Kovalainen was brilliant, this year not so much. You're always going to be limited by the strengths of your car, but sometimes some drivers do that little bit more. Here are my top drivers of 2012.

25. Jerome d’Ambrosio (Lotus)

Drove for one race replacing the banned Romain Grosjean at the Italian Grand Prix; didn’t disgrace himself but a KERs failure put paid to any decent result.

24. Narain Karthikeyan (HRT)

Angering Vettel was his main claim to fame, and perhaps blocked a few too many people, but certainly give him credit for occasionally beating de la Rosa.

23. Pedro de la Rosa (HRT)

What was he going to do in this car? Exactly, he’s a decent driver but beating his team mate was about as good as it was going to get, but there were days when he did more, his qualifying in Japan was exceptional.

22. Vitaly Petrov (Caterham)

I thought he’d be a bit closer to Kovalainen, but as the season wore on he began to put pressure on his team mate and was the team’s saviour in Brazil securing them 10^th place in the constructors.

21. Charles Pic (Marussia)

Pic should rejoice for being the first number 2 driver from this team to secure a second season in Formula 1. He should rejoice still further that it’s with the slightly better Caterham team. Challenged Glock enough through the year.

20. Heikki Kovalainen (Caterham)

Started off well enough but as the season progressed Petrov gave him more of a run for his money and he seemed to buckle a bit; not on the form of last year. Sadly he might not be in Formula 1 next year, but that’s more because he lacks money!

19. Timo Glock (Marussia)

Was the best driver in the new teams this year, his performance in Brazil looked amazing, such a shame he was hit to prevent what could have secured 10^th place for Marussia.

18. Bruno Senna (Williams)

This position for Senna is more a reflection on how Williams handled him than how he drove. He missed vital set up time as they gave the car to 3^rd driver Valtteri Bottas in first practice at most races. Still he picked up points in half the races, but they were never the big ones.

17. Jean-Eric Vergne (Toro Rosso)

Was often the driver who fell in Q1, but to be fair to him he raced very well 

and was taken out of a few good points paying positions but needs more speed from qualifying.

16. Daniel Ricciardo (Toro Rosso)

Qualified better than his team mate but he was a victim of circumstance on a few occasions that robbed him of some better results. Still, he had a certain spark and he seemed to be consistently improving as the season went on; his Korean result was particularly impressive.

15. Paul di Resta (Force India)

He started off brightly against his team mate Nico Hulkenberg, but as the season wore on it started becoming increasingly noticeable that he was being out performed, and the rumours of him becoming the next Mercedes driver started becoming quieter. Needs a more consistently sparkling season in 2013, like his result in Singapore.

14. Pastor Maldonado (Williams)

He may have won an impressive race in Spain, but the Williams was probably at least the 6^th best car on the grid, sometimes better. That they finished 8^th in the constructors championship was down to the large contribution of incidents from Maldonado. Many times he threw away a decent result, scoring just 5 times during the season. That he still beat his team mate is testament to the fact he’s actually bloody quick, next year he must harness his speed because Pastor could be very good indeed.

13. Romain Grosjean (Lotus)

Yes, ok he crashed a lot. And that’s the only reason he’s down here. The ban because of the start line crash in Belgium knocked his confidence, but a lot of the other incidents weren’t his fault, wrong place, wrong time. He had the measure of Kimi in qualifying a lot of the time and for a fair amount of the season looked the most likely to take Lotus’ first win. I think he’ll be very good next year providing Lotus keep him. And they should.

12. Nico Rosberg (Mercedes)

Rosberg is a good driver, he really is. But that’s all he is, I just don’t see him becoming a world champion. His first year with Schumacher, he thrashed the 7 time champion. He again out-scored Schuey this year and took his first win, but to me he wasn’t the quicker driver in the team. Lewis Hamilton should be comfortably the faster driver next year at Mercedes.

11. Kamui Kobayashi (Sauber)

He often out qualified and out raced his McLaren bound team mate Sergio Perez this year and took a great result in Japan with 3^rd place. He doesn’t get the credit he deserves; he’s one of the great over takers but having said that he still gets involved in a few incidents and didn’t come close to winning a race, something his team mate showed the Sauber could do.

For the the top 10 drivers, click here

all photo's taken from autosport.com

Sebastian Vettel: A deserving Champion

Sebastian Vettel  is the 2012 Formula 1 world champion, and yes he thoroughly deserves it. There are many cases to be made for other drivers as to why they might deserve it more because they haven’t had the best car or they got taken out at races or their team elected to screw up their pit stops for an extra challenge.

But the fact is the guy with the most points wins and that means through all the different circumstances and challenges that have been presented to each driver every race, that driver with his team have dealt with and overcome those obstacles and utilised their package the best.

Over simplified it may be, but you can only deal with what you have, and if you get a good hand it’s about using it to the best of your ability.

Vettel in 2011 had a car that could dominate and he exploited that to its fullest potential, I don’t believe anyone else can push a perfect car to the extremes he can. In 2012 it was all change, gone were the exhaust blown diffusers, the trick device that Red Bull had previously designed their car around.

And yes at first it wasn’t brilliant for Vettel. Only one win and two other podiums from the first 10 races saw him getting frustrated, with slightly petulant radio calls to his engineers to help him out more giving him the appearance of a spoilt child, too used to the races falling for him.

In Malaysia his gesture to Narain Karthikeyan in the HRT was of someone not really accustomed to struggling as he suffered a puncture due to contact with the HRT’s front wing. He pulled over too quickly on the Indian, but he didn’t see it like that.

These things gave the impression he was not used to working for his results, which of course is utter rubbish, 2011 was far closer in the actual races than it appeared and let’s not forget 2010, but to the outside it could well have seemed here was someone not able to deal with being in a fight again.

His team mate Mark Webber was a factor once more, with the blown diffusers out of action Webber seemed more capable of extracting the performance from a car not working as expected. In fact the Australian seemed to be his 2010 self and had an extra win over Vettel as the season turned to the second half.

At this point Vettel lay 44 points behind Fernando Alonso, that’s nearly two race wins adrift. In that time he had taken two no scores, one of which was a certain victory in Valencia due to an alternator failure where he threw his gloves off in frustration. Despite this he remained calm, he has complete trust in his team, and they paid him back.

In the next 10 races he scored 7 podiums including 4 wins. The thing is despite the Red Bull not being up to scratch at the start, particularly in qualifying it still had great race pace and Vettel still got results out of it to leave him in contention. Alonso was always worried about the threat Vettel posed once the Red Bull could get back it’s qualifying pace.

And once it did, once the rear end was sorted and mimicked the blown diffuser concept (although not to the same effect), Vettel extrapolated as much speed as could be had. Four consecutive wins from Singapore to India, with the final three the very definition of Red Bull’s race plan. Qualify at the front, get a gap to nullify the DRS zone and control the race.

It’s what Vettel does best. Unlike Webber who faded a little, Vettel can extract the maximum speed when the car calls for a driving style that will access this speed, changing his style to suit the car.

These were impressive drives, but perhaps what will be remembered is that he didn’t just clear off in the three races that followed. He still had to fight hard for this title, especially against someone like Alonso. 

Problems and circumstances meant he had to charge through the field on two occasions. Vettel is more than capable of fighting with the best of them and not just winning from the front.

In Abu Dhabi, in truth I thought he looked clumsy at first, clipping Bruno Senna then nearly losing control behind the safety car, but still from last to third place is a good day in anyone’s book. And the calmness and assured overtaking he displayed as he fought back from near disaster in Brazil as he was spun to the back of the field was a drive truly worthy of a world champion.

So yes, Alonso may not have had the best car, but for a long time in the middle portion of the season particularly it was easily a podium capable car, but Vettel didn’t have the fastest car either for a fair portion of the season and he too was able to grind out the results when needed. McLaren had the best car overall, they just screwed up a fair few times.

You can only play the hand you’re dealt with, Alonso played his to perfection, but so did Vettel, it just so happens Vettel had an ace and he used it. You get what you’re given sometimes and it’s up to you to maximise those opportunities, which he did.

You can’t argue with someone who has had the strength to fight a title winning campaign in three consecutive seasons, only the third man after Fangio and Schumacher to achieve it, and at only 25 years old too, there’s more to come. He’s a thoroughly deserving champion.

all photo's taken from autosport.com

Vettel charges to title as Button wins Brazilian thriller

Sebastian Vettel is the youngest triple world champion in Formula 1 history, and certainly after this race no one can deny that he richly deserves it. It was an incredible come back drive after everything had looked lost for him in the tricky condition at Interlagos.

After being squeezed towards the wall off the start line from 4th, he backed off and ended up in the pack as they approached turn 4. First of all he owes Kimi Raikkonen a debt of gratitude who left his braking late and jinked out onto the run off to avoid hitting the back of the Red Bull.

If you look at the replays, Vettel was so close to disaster, his rear wing would have been ripped off and it would’ve been race over. As it was he went into a different accident.

He went to the apex of turn 4 but Bruno Senna’s Williams was already there tipping Vettel round which launched Senna over his right rear wheel. Ordinarily that could have been wheel off, but not this time, this was Vettel’s day.

As the rest of the field found their way by, Vettel kept the car straight as he continued backwards. Quickly flicking his Red Bull round, he got back on it and soon attached himself to the back of the pack again.

He was in devastating form and carved his way back into the top 10 in no time. In fact as the conditions worsened and cars were stopping for intermediate tyres on lap 11 Vettel had Alonso in his sights.

On lap 22 the safety car was called to clear a lot of debris from the track, it closed the pack up, but Vettel was already fairly close to Alonso, if anything it hindered him as Kamui Kobayashi managed to squeeze by followed a few laps later by a brave move from Alonso’s team mate Felipe Massa to come round the outside into turn 4. He now was 7^th, but it was still good.

As everyone switched back to dry tyres, the rain began to fall again, Vettel’s radio was malfunctioning and he came into the pits and got dries put on again instead of inters. He had to come back in, but yet again he made the progress he needed and was soon back ahead of the likes of Kobayashi and Michael Schumacher as the weather continued to add spice to the action.

Alonso was now in second, but it made no difference to Vettel, he had the position in 6^th and on lap 69 as Paul di Resta smashed into the wall just before the finishing straight, the safety car was called and that was it. Sebastian Vettel cruised over the line in now soaking conditions to confirm his third consecutive driver’s title.

A fantastic recovery when it had all looked so bad an hour and a half earlier. A lot has been said already about Vettel only winning because of Red Bull having the faster car at the end of the season. But that’s just to simplify things really.

Vettel was up near the front all year and when the opportunity came, as perhaps only he can, he exploited it fully. I’m not sure anyone can drive quite as fast as Sebastian when the car is perfect.

And let’s not forget his lost win in Valencia when he was dominating or the lost points in Italy through alternator failures or the fantastic recovery drives in Abu Dhabi and here in Brazil. Vettel is a truly deserving three time world champion.

It could have all been so different

Fernando Alonso will look back at this season, and I hope he believes like most others that it was one of the great demonstrations of how to go about constructing an almost perfect year of motor racing.

Yet again he qualified poorly, but that’s all the car has allowed him to do for most of the year. But as always he targeted the podium and very rarely does he not succeed in getting there. At the beginning of lap 2, Alonso was in world championship winning position; Vettel was nowhere and the Spaniard had already worked his way up to third with a nice double overtake on Webber and Massa into turn 1.

It could have been his, but as the rain continued to fall he ran wide at turn 1 to let Nico Hulkenberg through into third, and Vettel was already slicing his way into the points. By lap 11 as they changed tyres it was already looking too much, but as always this year he was there picking up the pieces and it so almost came off.

After Hulkenberg and Lewis Hamilton collided and Massa let him through, he was into 2^nd, but it just wasn’t enough. I think Fernando has looked a little tentative over the last two races, he’s been out paced by Massa and I think he knew it was going away from him when for so long he really believed it was his.

And it could have been, but for two crashes at the start of the Belgian and Japanese races he would be world champion, but Vettel can point to races where he lost points too, as can Hamilton. This is motor racing. We also should not forget that despite the desperate image built up this year, Ferrari have actually finished second in the constructors, and their car was podium capable from a quarter of the way through.

That takes nothing away from Alonso though, he would have truly deserved his third title; he’s scored 13 podiums, more than anyone else and he has galvanised the team like no one else has. They’re all behind him and working for him because he’s a truly inspirational figure head for the team and I’ve no doubt that Alonso’s day will come again sooner rather than later.

Jenson Button bookends 2012

Even without the drama of the title decider this race was a real thriller in the rain. It was a proper epic with drama all the way down the field and the battle for the lead typified this. The McLaren’s had locked out the front row with Hamilton on pole by less than a tenth.

They got away well at the start and there followed a hard battle between them as Button tracked Lewis, passed him, was re-passed then finally stayed ahead. Catching them steadily though was Hulkenberg who looked like he was about to produce a giant killing act.

As everyone including Lewis dived for the pits to switch to inters when the rain began to fall, Button and Hulkenberg continued to fight it out on slicks and actually built up a 40 second lead over the rest of the field. On lap 18 Nico made his move, exiting the final corner he used all his KERs energy to slipstream Button and pass him into turn 1.

Their lonely battle at the front was brought to an end when the safety car came out. Hamilton was back in contention and soon got ahead of Button, and began to hunt Hulkenberg, much as he did to Vettel last week.

Lap 48 and Hulkenberg slipped up, catching a damp white line into turn 7 and half spinning. He caught it well but it was enough for Hamilton to get by. It didn’t end there though, Hulkenberg was in great form and clung onto Lewis as they approached backmarkers 7 laps later.

The Force India dived down the inside into turn 1 but was on the wet, the back end got away from him and slid into the side of the McLaren destroying Lewis’ left front. He was out, Nico who had driven heroically dropped down the field, amplified by the stewards handing him a drive through penalty, he still managed to finish 5^th but it could have been so much more. Hamilton was out, his McLaren career over.

Jenson Button had been hovering not far behind and picked up the lead, he cruised to the finish to earn his third win of the year. If there had been no safety car it would have been interesting to see if Button could have got back past Hulkenberg, but whatever all three of them drove a great final race of 2012.

Another lost win for Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton can justifiably claim to have driven a fantastic season. He’s lost a lot of points, mostly through no fault of his own, something which perhaps influenced his decision to leave McLaren to join Mercedes for next season.

Whatever the circumstances though he wanted to leave McLaren on a high, this is a team which have nurtured him since he was 11, they brought him into Formula 1 and took him to world championship glory.

It was a sad way to end, but he got a standing ovation when he returned to the pits and it was no less than he deserved. I think he’s driven one of his best years, especially after the shambles that 2011 was.

Lewis deserved more than he got out of 2012, but I believe he’ll win races for Mercedes next year. He’s that kind of driver. Whether he can get the team around him in the way Alonso has with Ferrari is another matter. We’ll see how that plays out over the coming seasons, and how he handles the situation if the team can’t deliver.

Schumacher’s final hurrah

A special mention to the legend that is Michael Schumacher who drove a fine final race to score Mercedes first points in 6 races. Qualifying 13^th he suffered a puncture and was lapped but the safety car allowed him back onto the lead lap.

From then on as the rain intensified he found himself fighting for points and eventually claimed 7^th as he showed his fighting spirit one last time. As ever with Schuey, he never gave up. It wasn’t the end many had hoped for and obviously his years at Mercedes weren’t the success they might have been.

But he showed enough speed and fight to show that despite his 43 years, he could mix it with this generation of stars and if he’d been given the opportunity would easily have taken another win and it certainly takes nothing away from the success he had in his first career.

Rest of the top 10

Felipe Massa came home third after juggling going fast, then slow, then holding up people and passing people in aid of his team mate. He’s been faster than Alonso over the last two weekends and he’ll certainly want to take that form into next year. He’s finally looking like the driver before his accident, if he can keep this up it’ll be interesting to see how Alonso takes it. One of the stars of the race.

Mark Webber had an eventful race to fourth, falling off and fighting back a few times. Squeezed Vettel at the 

start and tried to pass him at the restart which must have made uncomfortable viewing for the Red Bull hierarchy.

Jean-Eric Vergne had a fine race to finish 8^th. He battled with the best of them and was closing down Schumacher towards the end.

Kamui Kobayashi felt the final shove of Schumacher’s career as he tried to pass the Mercedes for 7^th. It spun him round but he kept going for 2 points. Earlier he’d been giving Vettel a hard time so not the result he was looking for in potentially his final race in Formula 1. It really shouldn’t be, he deserves a seat next year.

Kimi Raikkonen picked up the final point and learnt a valuable lesson, always make sure escape roads have their gates open. In one of several time he left the track, he tried to go round the back at turn 11 only to discover his way blocked off. A quick spin turn and a grass cutting exercise and he was back on track. He did however get lapped meaning he was one lap short of having completed every single lap this year.

Finally Caterham took an 11^th place with Vitaly Petrov meaning they passed Marussia in the constructors championship to earn valuable extra money and free travel.

So that was that then

The 2012 Formula 1 season is over, and wasn’t it just great? The majority of the races were fantastic, the championship went down to the wire and we have a great three time world champion with Sebastian Vettel after Fernando Alonso was an absolute hero for Ferrari to drag his car into contention.

Next year the regulations remain mostly the same, Pirelli are bringing new softer compounds, theirs plenty of driver changes, Alonso and Vettel will continue to lead their teams, Lotus and Kimi should progress and Lewis will win for Mercedes. It’s going to be even closer in 2013.

all photo's taken from autosport.com

Hamilton's greatest win keeps title race wide open

Lewis Hamilton won a hugely tense and thrilling first race at the Circuit of the Americas in Texas, to set up a last round title showdown between Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso in Brazil.

Scoring his first win in six races, Lewis Hamilton perhaps has never driven such a great race as he hunted down Vettel and moved in for the kill. The entire weekend had been Vettel’s fastest by far in the opening three practice sessions, the Red Bull driver then followed that up with pole position.

But Saturday showed us this wasn’t going to just be a Red Bull victory party as Hamilton was only just over a tenth of second behind. It was going to be close and so it proved.

This new specially built track had been fairly grip-less all weekend, especially as Pirelli brought too conservative tyre options which took an age to heat up, but nowhere was as slippery as the even numbered side of the grid. Many race engineers predicted cars starting from there could lose up to two positions from the start.

Fortunately for Lewis, he lost just one to Mark Webber as Vettel shot away in the lead, but in recent times when the Red Bull’s have got out in front no one has seen them again for the rest of the day, not this time though.

Hamilton was soon back ahead of Webber on lap 4 and immediately cut the gap to Vettel, then steadily tracked him down. Webber duly retired 13 laps later with Red Bull’s nemesis, Renault alternator failures.

Lewis looked threatening and closed him down even getting into DRS zone; it was great to see Vettel being challenged, and it was only Lewis who could, no one else who get even close to these two. However, Vettel resisted and after a brief lock up from the McLaren he began to pull away again.

Lewis made his pit stop on lap 20, Vettel following a lap later, and suddenly Lewis heated up the attacks again. He quickly surged passed the yet to stop Kimi Raikkonen and tore after Vettel.

The DRS zone was the main attack point, but each and every time he got close through the first sectors high speed sweeps, the Red Bull traction out of the slow hairpin into the DRS straight was able to keep Vettel just out of reach, the McLaren bouncing off the rev limiter.

Lewis dropped back for a while, let everything calm down and then he launched again. He brought the gap down over a few laps then lap 41 he gets close, not quite enough though. Lap 42, he must be able to see his opportunity ahead of him.

Vettel comes into the series of fast sweeping bends, quickly approaching the HRT of Narain Karthikeyan who can’t quite get out of the way in time momentarily blocking him, the McLaren of Hamilton looms into Vettel’s mirrors, he hasn’t been this close yet, it’s the break he needed.

Into the DRS zone, Hamilton activates, Vettel immediately knows Lewis is closer than ever and pulls to the left hand side of the track to defend the inside line. Hamilton follows him across being pulled by the slip stream ever close.

Finally he darts out from behind the Red Bull rear wing and shoots past, slicing ahead of the Red Bull to hold the inside line into turn 12. He was through and he wasn’t going to lose this now.

To demonstrate just how close it was between the pair of them, Vettel didn’t just fall away, in fact he was never more than 1.5 seconds away for the remaining 14 laps. But he didn’t get an opportunity, and Lewis managed to hold a gap of more than a second to keep Vettel away from the DRS zone and win his fourth race of the year.

Hamilton drove brilliantly and he truly deserved another win for McLaren before his move to Mercedes; they failed to score a point again despite Michael Schumacher qualifying fifth, but they had no race pace and dropped back. Hamilton must hope they’ve been working on the 2013 car for a long time now.

Anyway more than that McLaren owed him a car that could challenge after the catalogue of dropped points from issues that have left Hamilton out of contention for this years title.

Vettel will rue that incident with the HRT, a win today would have put one hand on the championship trophy, he’d have been 20 points ahead heading into the final round, as it is he’s still 13 ahead, but yet again Alonso saved a result by getting on the podium.

However, Red Bull did win the constructors championship today, their third in a row which is a fantastic achievement.

Ferrari

Ferrari worked the rules today. Felipe Massa and Alonso could only qualify 6^th and 8^th respectively after Romain Grosjean took a grid penalty to drop him from 4^th to 9^th. This meant they lined up on the dirty side of the grid with supposedly less grip. There was almost a sense of paranoia about that side of the track.

They felt it was so bad, that they broke the seal on Massa’s healthy gearbox to drop him to 11^th and promote Alonso to 7^th and thereby giving him the preferred side of the grid as well as moving him up a position.

Whether it’s in the spirit of the rules or not is neither here nor there, as it was a great bit of team tactics and there is nothing that says you can’t do it. And it worked too. Alonso made another great start and was fourth out of the first corner, once Webber dropped out he was third and from then on, there he stayed.

Without that switch he might well have lost a place and found himself in the pack, but having said that Ferrari had a good enough pace to see them through as demonstrated by Massa’s superb charge through the field to fourth place.

He made a number of good overtakes and often was setting fastest laps. If anything Massa had the pace to beat Alonso today, in fact he was quicker all weekend, but he played the team game and if Alonso ends up world champion, Massa will have played a small, but vital part in the game. Ferrari played the game today and played it well.

Overtake of the race

Kimi Raikkonen didn’t have the speed to participate at the front this weekend like he did a fortnight ago but he still pulled off a fantastic move on Nico Hulkenberg. As he exited turn 1 he switched back to pull alongside the Force India, and then hung on round the outside of the fast turn 2 to claim the inside of the next corner. It was breath taking.

Kimi ended up 6^th after a great move by Jenson Button at the end of the DRS zone to go round the outside of turn 12 and hold off the Lotus.

Rest of the top 10

Jenson Button was 5^th after qualifying only 12^th due to technical problems. He actually dropped down to 16^th on the opening lap but fought his way through the pack with some decent scrapping and decisive as well as opportunistic overtakes. He had good speed, so it was disappointing he wasn’t able to show it most of the time.

Still he wasn’t in Lewis’ class this weekend, and surely that is a slightly concern for McLaren’s 2013 title push.

Romain Grosjean suffered a spin on lap 7 which dropped him down the order from well inside the top 10. However he still ended up right on the back of Kimi to end up 7^th. If only he could stop making mistakes as he’s actually a really good race driver.

Nico Hulkenberg for Force India, Pastor Maldonado and Bruno Senna for Williams seemed to be constantly involved in some fantastic action as they finished 8^th, 9^th and 10^th. The Williams’ were often in fairly close proximity.

But the entire field put on a show for their new American audience (albeit with a large quantity of Mexican’s in the audience). It won’t have helped that the NASCAR decider was on this weekend too, so the impact will have been lessened, but what they needed was a good race to demonstrate the product.

And that they got, there were battles all the way down the field, all the teams participating as mostly they fought to get past Schumacher, but after that the action continued. It was just the start Formula 1 needed in their new American home.

The title decider

So to Brazil next weekend, where apparently there’s a 40% chance of rain, Alonso does quite well when theirs a bit of precipitation. Against all the odds he’s kept himself in this title battle, is there one final card to play in the decider?

Vettel may have the advantage and the best car, but Alonso has a bullet proof car and knows Red Bull have fears about their reliability. This is still very much open; it’s all to play for in Sao Paulo. 

all photo's from autosport.com