Brazilian GP Report
November 9th 2010 01:33
The battle for the driver’s title took another dramatic step towards the wire in Brazil. Red Bull clinched their first ever constructor’s championship and ensured Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso would not be allowed to slip away with the title. Sebastian Vettel’s victory brought him closer to a once unlikely title prospect – and has promised a tantalising three-way showdown in Abu Dhabi.
Red Bull
Sebastian Vettel (1st)
Vetts drove his most mature race of the year, free from the careless errors that have brought him to grief on several occasions before. He crucially dispatched surprise pole-sitter Nico Hulkenberg off the line, and controlled the race until the flag. He wasn’t able to shake his teammate Webber, and was helped when Liuzzi crashed and brought out a safety car right when Webber was hunting him down. After that though, the German was easily able to take the victory and bring his title dream a little closer to fruition.
Mark Webber (2nd)
Webbs has simply not been able to find that tenth in qualifying that he needs to get ahead of his in-form teammate. He duly tailed his Red Bull stablemate to the flag, but as with this race, he finds himself sandwiched between an frighteningly quick teammate and a triple-world champion who is a perpetual threat. Webber’s performance in Abu Dhabi will be career-defining. An overdue dominant performance from the Aussie will be rewarded with a hard-earned title.
Ferrari
Fernando Alonso (3rd)
The championship leader had to work a little at the start to get past Hulkenberg’s Williams and his good mate Lewis Hamilton, but once he was clear, he kept pressure on the Red Bulls – despite the pace disadvantage of his Ferrari. He will head into Abu Dhabi with the title for the taking, but will need to dig deep to make up the half-second deficit his Ferrari F10 concedes to the RB6. If anyone can do it – it’s Alonso.
Felipe Massa (15th)
The Brazilian had a rather horrible time at his home grand prix, struggling for pace in qualifying and then having a trouble-filled afternoon on Sunday. An early problem with his wheels required an extra pitstop that dropped him down the order, where he remained, playing bumper cars with the dense midfield cluster of cars all the way home to a dismal 15th.
McLaren
Lewis Hamilton (4th)
Hammy fought hard in Brazil, but the McLaren was just no match for the Red Bulls or Nando’s Ferrari. Burnout Boy did well to finish fourth, with brief flashes of pace – including the fastest race lap, but he needed much more to keep his title dream alive. Now he’s on the absolute mathematic margin and will need a genuine miracle. His Alonso, Webber and Vettel voodoo dolls will be copping a beating come Abu Dhabi.
Jenson Button (5th)
J-Butt’s hopes of a second consecutive title faded in Brazil, the scene of his euphoric title victory last year. The Brit put in a typical soild performance to tail his teammate home – but again showed he lacked the outright pace to compete at the pointy end.
Mercedes
Nico Rosberg (6th)
Nico had an uncharacteristically bad qualifying, going out in Q2 in 13th, but a dogged effort on Sunday saw the dreamboat sail into the points. Fresh rubber was bolted onto his Mercedes when the safety car came out late in the race, which helped him come home strong.
Michael Schumacher (7th)
Old Man Schumacher was again comfortable running in the lower half of the top ten in Brazil. The million-time world champion had some skirmishes with Kubica and Sutil, but kept his nose clean to the end. He even let Nico past in the final laps when his tyres began to sag. Who is this man?
Williams
Nico Hulkenberg (8th)
Only days after he was touted as a future champion by his boss, Hulky’s surprise pole elation was short-lived when a poor start lost him the lead immediately and he was helplessly gobbled up by the championship condenders and the Mercedes boys. Still he gave his all in a difficult car and came home with points, which is all you can ask from a rookie.
Rubens Barrichello (14th)
Woobens has never had a successful home grand prix despite trying 723 times. This year a fault in the pits and a collision with Alguersuari was the rain on the Brazilian’s parade.
Renault
Robert Kubica (9th)
It’s a promising sign for Renault when ninth place for Koobs is considered a failure. The Pole never had a good set up and he struggled for race pace.
Vitaly Petrov (16th)
The Russian rookie did well to make a rare Q3 appearance, but couldn’t sustain performance in the race and was one of the biggest losers in the midfield gaggle.
Sauber
Kamui Kobayashi (10th)
Kobayashi ran a risky long stint strategy from 12th on the grid, but the yield was probably not quite what Sauber were hoping for. The Japanese driver’s tyres were knackered by the end of his stint and he lost a great deal of time skating around Interlagos. Still, he managed to snatch a sneaky point so it wasn’t a complete failure.
Nick Heidfeld (15th).
Heidy’s Brazilian weekend was a bit of a disaster. Poor timing in qualy left him languishing in 15th on the grid. The German fought through to the cusp of the top ten, but a drive through for ignoring blue flags killed any hope of points.
Toro Rosso
Jaime Alguersuari (11th)
Jaime surprised himself with his relative competitiveness. Battling from 14th on the grid, the young Spaniard was always in contention for points, but he ran a ragged race and bumped into a few cars on his way to 11th.
Sebastien Buemi (13th)
Buemi, like Kobayashi, opted for a long first stint, which made life difficult once the tyres became as useful as sticks of butter. He showed decent pace, but strategy let him down.
Force India
Adrian Sutil (12th)
Force India continued their late-season dip in performance, but Sutil used good timing and strategy to work his way from 22nd on the grid to finish 12th.
Tonio Liuzzi (DNF)
Liuzzi badly needed to string another decent performance after his rain assisted 6th in Korea. But he drove into the barriers from a non-points paying position. If he has a drive next year, it won’t be because of his performance this season.
Lotus
Heikki Kovalainen (18th)
Heikki was once again the spearhead of the new teams, leading Lotus pal Trulli home. Not much else to report. Oh, I can confirm he ate ravioli for dinner on the Saturday night.
Jarno Trulli (19th)
The winemaker/driver showed some decent pace to leapfrog Glock in the pits and close right up to his teammate by the end of the race. Another double finish for Lotus ahead of Virgin gave them something to smile about.
Virgin
Timo Glock (20th)
Glock Dog qualified the best of the new teams, but his Virgin was simply unable to match the race pace of rivals Lotus. Kovalainen went past him at the first corner while Trulli jumped him in the pits.
Lucas Di Grassi (DNS)
Di Grassi’s first home grand prix wasn’t as successful as he may have hoped. A debilitating mechanical issue slowly turned his car into a barely moving wreck and he had to call it quits early.
HRT
Bruno Senna (21st)
Senna was greeted with much fanfare from his compatriots. Hailing from a country that treats his uncle as a deity ensured Senna was never far from the spotlight, where he… disappointed. Again, outqualified by a large margin by his out-of-practise teammate Klien exposed Senna’s lack of pace.
Christian Klien (22nd)
Back thanks to Yamamoto’s sickness, Klien took the opportunity to again impress despite his lack of mileage. The Austrian was less than two tenths behind Di Grassi’s superior Virgin, and, crucially, he bettered teammate Senna’s time by seven tenths A problem on the warm up lap set him back several laps, but he put in some miles and posted race laps faster than his teammate.
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