Webber victorious in season finale

Mark Webber ended the perfect season for Red Bull Racing with victory at the Brazilian Grand Prix.

It has been a long time coming for the Australian considering the ultra success of his team-mate Sebastian Vettel. To take his first win in the season finale is much of a relief and a good way to sign off the year.

For Sebastian Vettel, the double world champion had to nurse his car following a gearbox issue. The young German did a great job in making it to the chequered flag and taking second position is quite impressive considering the circumstance.

As for Jenson Button, the McLaren driver secured the runner-up spot in the championship with third.

The pace of the Red Bulls at Interlagos was immense, with Vettel holding the lead at the start. Team-mate Webber was able to fend off the others for P2 despite a slightly slower getaway off the grid.

Vettel soon opened up a stable three-second gap to Webber, as the Red Bull duo left the rest in their wake at a rate of around a second per lap.

But from the early laps Vettel was receiving radio messages warning him to short-shift second and third gear to nurse a developing gearbox problem, and as the warnings became more urgent, his pace slowed enough for Webber to sweep past and into the lead on lap 29.

With Webber as the new leader, the Australian took advantage and went on to take his first win since last year’s Hungarian Grand Prix. As for Vettel, he had enough pace to hang on for second position.

He was helped by McLaren’s Jenson Button and Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso battling over third spot. Alonso passed Lewis Hamilton’s McLaren at the start, and then claimed P3 from Button with a spectacular move around the outside at Ferradura on lap 11.

Alonso then pulled away, only to lose pace on the harder Prime tyre in his final stint, allowing Button to catch and re-pass him nine laps from the flag with an easy DRS manoeuvre.

Hamilton was set to battle with Felipe Massa for fifth – with the Brazilian pitting twice while the others adopted the three pit-stop strategy – until a gearbox failure halted the McLaren, ensuring the Ferrari could keep the track position.

Adrian Sutil claimed sixth place after an entertaining battle with Nico Rosberg. He passed the Mercedes driver heading into the Senna S only to be out-done on the brakes by Rosberg and fall back behind.

Sutil tried again on the next lap and this time squeezed Rosberg towards the inside of the corner to be sure of taking the place.

Behind them came Paul di Resta, coping with KERS and gearbox problems, cementing Force India’s sixth place in the championship. They ended the year just four points behind Renault with Vitaly Petrov taking tenth at the flag.

His Renault team-mate Bruno Senna clashed with Michael Schumacher at the Senna S early on, giving the Mercedes a left-rear puncture. The race stewards handed out Senna a drive-through penalty for the collision and with gearbox troubles also developing, he fell to P17, while Schumacher got back to P15.

Rubens Barrichello was unable to score in what could be his final Grand Prix appearance. A poor start dropped the Williams to P21 but he was able to recover to P14.

So a great season finale in Brazil. The threat of rain never made an appearance despite different weather forecasts but after waiting all year, Mark Webber took the dominant RB7 to his seventh career victory.

The Australian recorded the fastest lap on the final lap of the Brazilian Grand Prix. The closest non-Red Bull finisher was almost half a minute behind.

Despite his gearbox problem, Sebastian Vettel ended up almost 17 seconds behind his team-mate, and over ten clear of Jenson Button.

It served only to underline the dominance of Red Bull throughout the season, and particularly in the second half. Their rivals have much to do in the next two months before testing for the 2012 season resumes.

Brazilian Grand Prix race results, 71 laps:

1.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault           1h32:17.434
2.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault           +16.983
3.  Button        McLaren-Mercedes           +27.638
4.  Alonso        Ferrari                    +35.048
5.  Massa         Ferrari                    +1:06.733
6.  Sutil         Force India-Mercedes       +1 lap
7.  Rosberg       Mercedes                   +1 lap
8.  Di Resta      Force India-Mercedes       +1 lap
9.  Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari             +1 lap
10.  Petrov        Renault                    +1 lap
11.  Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +1 lap
12.  Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +1 lap
13.  Perez         Sauber-Ferrari             +1 lap
14.  Barrichello   Williams-Cosworth          +1 lap
15.  Schumacher    Mercedes                   +1 lap
16.  Kovalainen    Lotus-Renault              +2 laps
17.  Senna         Renault                    +2 laps
18.  Trulli        Lotus-Renault              +2 laps
19.  D’Ambrosio    Virgin-Cosworth            +3 laps
20.  Ricciardo     HRT-Cosworth               +3 laps

Fastest lap: Webber, 1:15.324

Not classified/retirements:

Liuzzi        HRT-Cosworth                 62 laps
Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes             37 laps
Maldonado     Williams-Cosworth            27 laps
Glock         Virgin-Cosworth              22 laps

World Championship standings, round 19:

Drivers:
1.  Vettel       392
2.  Button       270
3.  Webber       258
4.  Alonso       257
5.  Hamilton     227
6.  Massa        118
7.  Rosberg       89
8.  Schumacher    76
9.  Sutil         42
10.  Petrov        37
11.  Heidfeld      34
12.  Kobayashi     30
13.  Di Resta      27
14.  Alguersuari   26
15.  Buemi         15
16.  Perez         14
17.  Barrichello    4
18.  Senna          2
19.  Maldonado      1

Constructors:
1.  Red Bull-Renault          650
2.  McLaren-Mercedes          497
3.  Ferrari                   375
4.  Mercedes                  165
5.  Renault                    73
6.  Force India-Mercedes       69
7.  Sauber-Ferrari             44
8.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari         41
9.  Williams-Cosworth           5

13 thoughts to “Webber victorious in season finale”

  1. By winning the season finale in Brazil, Mark Webber commented that this triumph was a “good tonic” ahead of the new season. Autosport.com has the story.

    Mark Webber says his victory in the final race of the season in Brazil will be a “good tonic” to come back stronger in 2012.

    The Australian was overshadowed by Red Bull team-mate Sebastian Vettel this year, the German scoring 11 wins and 15 poles on his way to his second title in a row.

    Webber took his first win of the year in Brazil today, and the Australian said he is determined to use it to build up his confidence and come back stronger next year.

    “I think I will have a stronger season than this year,” said Webber. “I started off poorly for different reasons, but we will look at all areas to get to the highest level. When the bar is at the highest level I don’t just look at Seb. There is Jenson, Fernando, these guys are on the top pace.

    “It is a good tonic for me this race. It’s good to sign off the RB7 like this. I will have it over the winter. We were concrete in many areas and that made it hard for the opposition. I’m looking forward to learning how to surf over the winter, backing off, recharging a bit and then coming back stronger.”

    Webber took the lead of the race when Vettel was hit by a gearbox problem, but the Australian said he was taking the win, having bit hit by bad luck himself in the past.

    “If felt good all weekend, to be honest,” he added. “Seb did a great lap for pole yesterday. It would have been nice to race Seb all the way through, but he had a problem.

    “It is a win I will take because I had enough bad luck. It is how motorsport goes. It is an important win for me and the team to win on a high.

    “I enjoyed the last few laps. A nice way to finish. I want to dedicated this win to a close friend of mine and his family, Bob Woods, who is ill at the moment, so this win is for him.”

    Despite the victory, Webber finished third in the championship behind McLaren’s Jenson Button.

  2. Struggling with a gearbox issue, Sebastian Vettel compared his Brazilian Grand Prix to Ayrton Senna’s 1991 race. Autosport.com has the details.

    Sebastian Vettel compared his second placed finish at the Brazilian Grand Prix to Ayrton Senna’s victory in the same race in 1991, after driving with a gearbox problem for most of the Interlagos event.

    The world champion converted his pole position into the lead at the first corner, but was informed of a fault with his gearbox early on by his engineer, and was told to manage the problem by short-shifting in second and third gears.

    Despite limiting the time loss caused, he was powerless to prevent his Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber passing him on lap 30 and driving away to victory.

    “I had a good feeling and was able to pull gap at the beginning, but then I had the call to manage a gearbox problem, turn down engine and short shift,” said Vettel.

    “It was getting worse, so I was using higher gears everywhere and that is where the comparison [with Senna] came into my head.”

    The German, who has won 11 times in 2011 and set a new all-time F1 record by taking his 15th pole of the year in qualifying, had no hard feelings about missing out on the win to his team-mate.

    He instead remarked upon the amazing run he has had during the year, in which he became world champion with four races still to go.

    “I don’t really call this bad luck. Surely if something like this happens, it is not in your hands,” he added.

    “In the end, we had a pretty amazing season and I think it would be over the top being upset now. I think we take this second place and the one-two finish for the team, which is great. It has been a phenomenal year and a very strong finish now as well.

    “Sure, I would have loved to win the race in the normal way today, but nevertheless we had a great season. It’s a year to be proud of.”

  3. Switching to the medium Prime tyre during the Brazilian Grand Prix was the key to securing third position for Jenson Button. Autosport.com has the story.

    Jenson Button said that McLaren’s decision to switch him onto medium tyres midway through the Brazilian Grand Prix was instrumental in his podium finish.

    The 2009 world champion was running fourth, between Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari and his team-mate Lewis Hamilton, and struggling on soft rubber when the decision was made to switch the Briton.

    During the second half of the race Button used two sets of the medium tyres, enabling him to overtake Alonso for the final podium spot with nine laps to go.

    “I had no pace on the softer tyres, so I used the harder rubber in the last two stints and it worked pretty well,” said Button.

    “Ferrari struggled on the harder tyres and I managed to make the pass [on Alonso]. Every lap was like a qualifying lap.”

    While on soft tyres earlier in the race, Button had lost third spot to Alonso as the Spaniard pulled off a spectacular move around the outside into the Ferradura right-hander.

    Button though, said he was powerless to defend from the Spaniard due to debris on the circuit that he was keen to avoid.

    “Fernando was very close out of Turn 5 and so I covered line for Turn 6 [Ferradura]. Normally it’s quite easy to block there.

    “I looked back to see where he was, then looked back in front and saw lots of debris on the inside, from Michael’s puncture I think.

    “I didn’t want to drive through it so I backed off but I couldn’t go left because he was already there, so I just had to pull in behind him.”

  4. Toro Rosso team boss Franz Tost said the Italian squad could not be happy with having missed out on seventh place in the standings after a disappointing end to the season.

    The Faenza-based squad was looking strong before the final three races of the year, when its form dropped after having closed the gap to Sauber to just one point ahead of today’s race.

    Although Tost said the team’s goal for the year was eighth position, he conceded having come so close and yet lose out to its rivals was not what his outfit wanted.

    “At the start of the season, we set ourselves the target of finishing at least eighth in the Constructors’ Championship and that is where we have finished, 36 points ahead of those in ninth place,” said Tost.

    “However, having come so close to challenging for seventh place when we picked up a significant number of points in Korea and India, we cannot be happy with missing out on overtaking the team ahead of us, failing to score in the last two races.”

    Neither Jaime Alguersuari nor Sebastien Buemi managed to finish in the points in today’s race, the Spaniard coming home in 11th, once place ahead of the Swiss.

    “As for today’s race, Sebastien got a good start, while Jaime dropped a couple of places and then on the Soft tyre, we struggled to match the pace of the Saubers who had got ahead of us at the start and therefore Kobayashi pulled away a bit,” added Tost.

    “Once back on the Medium compound, Jaime was able to close the gap but not enough to get past. As for Buemi, he did not have the pace today, which was partly due to the fact we opted to give him a set-up that would have been more suited to a wet race.

    “Work is already well underway on our next year’s car and as from tomorrow, the entire team’s focus switches to 2012.”

    Source: Autosport.com

  5. By finishing in the top ten in the constructors’ standings, Team Lotus boss Tony Fernandes was ‘overjoyed’ with the result. Autosport.com has the details.

    Team Lotus boss Tony Fernandes said he was overjoyed after his outfit secured tenth place in the constructors’ championship for the second year in a row.

    The result means the team, which will race as Caterham next season, will get a financial boost thanks to its performance over the past two seasons.

    Fernandes also said he was delighted to have Heikki Kovalainen finish ahead of a Renault in today’s race in Brazil, the Finn coming home in 16th place, just in front of Bruno Senna, who had a troubled event.

    Renault will be renamed Team Lotus next year after a long battle over the name with Fernandes, who said he was glad to prove “good guys do win.”

    “Almost tears for me today! I am absolutely overjoyed,” said Fernandes. “Two years of hard work have paid off today and it was great to see both cars home safely, helping us win tenth place.

    “The icing on the cake was beating a Renault – that meant a lot to me as I have always said the good guys do win.

    “We have a fantastic little team here. Now we look forward to our new life as Caterham F1 Team and we say goodbye to Team Lotus.

    “Colin [Chapman] – we hope we did you proud and we hope you keep an eye over us as Caterham F1 Team. We know we will do you proud there as well.”

  6. Peter Sauber believes having secured seventh place in the standings will be a good boost for the morale of his team ahead of next year.

    The Swiss squad, which finished in eighth place last season, held on to seventh after having arrived just one point ahead of Toro Rosso in the Brazilian Grand Prix.

    Kamui Kobayashi managed to extend the gap over his rivals by finishing in ninth place at Interlagos on Sunday.

    “It was an important result today,” said Sauber. “We were able to move up one position in the Constructors’ Championship compared to last year, which is good for the morale of the team.

    “Kamui drove a fantastic race, making up positions in the early laps and then driving fast and consistently to take two championship points. Thanks to the whole team at the track, in Hinwil and to our partner Ferrari.”

    Kobayashi was delighted with his race and with his team’s position, but conceded Sauber will need to work very hard during the winter after its form dropped in the second half of the season.

    “We worked a lot on the race pace and I’m happy that I was able to score in the final two races of the season,” he said. “It was important for us to finish ahead of Toro Rosso and I’m glad we managed to do that. The strategy was good and the car was as well – many thanks to the guys.

    “After we have struggled a bit in the second half of the season, we have a lot to work on over the winter. I think it is good that we will have the same team with the same drivers again, but we want to become stronger.”

    His team-mate Sergio Perez finished the race in 13th position.

    Source: Autosport.com

  7. With Adrian Sutil finishing in sixth with his team-mate Paul di Resta in eighth, the Force India team has labelled this result as the ‘perfect’ way to end the 2011 season. Autosport.com has the story.

    Force India labelled its performance in the final race of the 2011 season as a perfect way to complete a strong campaign on its way to sixth place in the standings, its best result to date.

    “Today’s result is the perfect way to end what has been a tremendous season for Force India,” said deputy team principal Robert Fernley after Adrian Sutil finished in sixth position and Paul di Resta in eighth.

    “Adrian and Paul drove brilliant races to add 12 more points to our tally and confirm our sixth place in the championship – our highest finish to date.

    “I’m also very pleased that we could move Adrian up to ninth in the drivers’ standings. As a team we have taken great strides forward this season and now is the time to congratulate everyone who has contributed to that. We head into the winter in good spirits and determined to come back even stronger next year to pick up where we left off.”

    Sutil, whose future at the team remains uncertain, was also delighted with the result, which allowed him to jump Nick Heidfeld and Vitaly Petrov in the standings to secure ninth.

    “I’m really happy about the result today,” Sutil said. “It completes a great weekend where everything went to plan. I had a good feeling in all the sessions and the team did a brilliant job to give me such a good car today. We also made the right calls with the strategy because we knew there was a chance to beat Mercedes, and that’s exactly what we did.

    “So I’m very happy with my sixth place – it’s the best way to end the year and it also means that I move up to ninth place in the drivers’ championship, which was my aim.”

    Di Resta added: “My eighth place today is a great result after quite a tough race for me. There was a concern with the gearbox around half way through the race so the team told me to just try and bring the car home.

    “In the final stint it was just a case of managing the gap to Kobayashi behind me and we had enough to do that quite easily in the end.

    “So that’s the end of my first season of Formula 1 and it’s been a great year, especially now we have finished sixth in the championship. It’s well deserved for the entire team and I want to thank everyone for their help and support during this amazing year.”

  8. Michael Schumacher believes Bruno Senna’s inexperience was to blame for the pair’s coming together on lap 10 of the Brazilian Grand Prix, that ruined the Mercedes driver’s race.

    Schumacher overtook Senna’s Renault for ninth on the start/finish straight, but had his right-rear tyre punctured by the Brazilian’s front wing as Senna stayed in the middle of the track and braked later than his rival as they approached Turn 1.

    Senna was given a drive-through penalty for causing an avoidable incident, while Schumacher had to drive a complete lap with a punctured tyre and fell to the back of the field – a lap down.

    Despite finishing back in 15th, he stopped short of castigating Senna, saying: “It was a bit of a shame today with the incident with Bruno, which was caused perhaps due to some lack of experience, but then those things happen. Otherwise I think we could have had a nice race with some solid points.

    “After the collision, all I could do was try to fight as much as possible, and hope for rain which did not come. In the first stint after the incident, my car was not well-balanced with a lot of oversteer.

    Team principal Ross Brawn agreed with Schumacher’s assessment of the incident, and was pleased with the seven-time world champion’s pace during his final stint of the race.

    “Michael had a good battle with Senna in the early laps, and his pass at the start of lap 10 was clear-cut. However, Senna showed his inexperience trying to defend a position that he had already lost, and the contact ruined Michael’s race,” said Brawn.

    “After an unplanned stop to replace his punctured tyre, Michael was able to demonstrate the car’s innate pace, thanks to a better car balance, and his laptimes looked reasonably competitive.”

    Source: Autosport.com

  9. McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton admitted he is happy that the 2011 season is finally over following a difficult race at Interlagos. Autosport.com has the details.

    Lewis Hamilton says he is happy the 2011 season is over after another difficult day for him in the Brazilian Grand Prix.

    The McLaren driver was hit by a gearbox problem early on in the race and ended up having to retire on lap 37 after the issue became terminal.

    Hamilton, who has enjoyed a season full of ups and downs, admitted he was just pleased he can now move on and start focusing on next year.

    “I’m just happy the season’s done,” said Hamilton. “I think it’s been an interesting year, and today I was giving my all.

    “I feel like I enjoyed the race and it’s a bit unfortunate for us and the for the team that we weren’t able to get the extra points, but otherwise I enjoyed racing out there.

    “I was challenging Felipe [Massa] in the end, but the gearbox problem came quite early so I was struggling with the gears.”

    The Briton, who finished in fifth place in the standings, said he will now relax before he focuses on getting stronger ahead of the start of next season.

    “It’s not really a relief,” he said about the end of the season. “It’s just that we’ve had a long, long year. I’m looking forward to a bit of down time and then just attacking next year.

    “I’ve got lots I can improve on, but I feel it’s all positive, even if we didn’t have a great result today.”

    Hamilton said the gearbox problem had hit him early in the race, which is why he was unable to make any progress before his retirement.

    “The gearbox stopped having good shifts from quite early on and so that’s why every time we came out of the corners people just pulled away from me. It was a really, really slow gearshift, so it was almost like I was doing it manually myself.”

  10. Rubens Barrichello believes he will be back with Williams next year despite the uncertainty over his future in Formula 1.

    The veteran Brazilian is yet to secure a race drive for 2012, with Williams still evaluating candidates to fill the seat.

    After finishing the Brazilian Grand Prix in 14th position, Barrichello said he is confident he will be racing in F1 next year despite all the speculation about his future.

    “I want to thank the team for all their hard work this year,” said Barrichello. “We have had a tough season but we’ve pushed together.

    “There’s been a lot of talk over the weekend, but I believe I will be back again next season.”

    The Brazilian admitted a race gamble did not pay off after the rain never hit the track, but he still believes his car was not fast enough to score points.

    “We thought it was going to rain today so we were running a long first gear. I started at the bottom of the hill, and as it was a dry start, I slipped back. It was a fun race but we don’t have a car that can finish in the points just yet.”

    Team-mate Pastor Maldonado retired from the race after losing control of his car on lap 27.

    “Our overall pace during the race was fine, but the rear wing setting slightly held us back on the long straight,” he said. “My retirement came after I passed Senna on lap 26. The car had too much oversteer and I just lost control of it.”

    Source: Autosport.com

  11. Ferrari driver Felipe Massa says qualifying puncture ruined his Brazilian Grand Prix weekend. Autosport.com has the story.

    Felipe Massa believes his Brazilian Grand Prix weekend was severely compromised by a qualifying puncture that robbed him of a set of soft Pirelli tyres for the race.

    After qualifying seventh for his home race, Massa’s Ferrari crew discovered the puncture on Saturday night, meaning that he would not have enough sets of soft rubber to make a three-stop strategy work in the optimum way.

    As a result, Ferrari switched him to a two-stop strategy, which the Brazilian acknowledged was not the quickest way to complete the race.

    “I had a puncture on one of my soft tyres sets; we only saw it last night, and because of that I could not do three stops,” he said. “The only way to do three stops was to use three sets of mediums, which was not the case, and so I was struggling a lot because of that.

    “Putting the medium [on] to do so many laps was really difficult for us, looking at Fernando that with the medium, we were struggling a lot so I think that was one of the problems I had today. We know we have a bigger performance gap than on the softs when compared to our closest competitors.”

    Massa ran inside the top six all race and finished fifth – equaling his best result of the season.

    However, with no podium finishes to show for his campaign – making him the first full-time Ferrari driver since Ivan Capelli in 1992 to fail to make the top three in a single race in a season, he wants to banish the memories of the year to history.

    “As for the championship, I just [want to] cancel 2011 and I hope everything that happened this year will not be repeated in the future,” he added.

  12. Red Bull is amazed that Sebastian Vettel made it to the finish of the Brazilian Grand Prix, following the gearbox problems he suffered in the race.

    The world champion was ordered to short-shift and be conservative with his gear use throughout the Interlagos race after gearbox oil levels were seen to drop early in the event.

    And although Vettel managed to nurse the car – and at one point said he felt like Ayrton Senna, who had to manage a gearbox situation in the 1991 Brazilian Grand Prix – Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said the outfit was never certain that he would make the chequered flag.

    “Both of the guys had very good starts and, from as early as lap five, we could see gearbox oil levels starting to drop,” explained Horner.

    “The early predictions were that it might get to half distance, so we monitored it for a couple of laps and then we could see a consistent pattern.

    “We informed Sebastian and he then started to try and manage the problem by adjusting his driving style. At that point he had a commanding lead.

    “Mark caught him, Sebastian radioed and said he would let him through at Turn 1, which he obviously did. That then released Mark to get on with his race, while we focused on trying to manage the problem.”

    He added: “Despite running a gear taller in each corner and trying to reduce the amount of shifts possible, his pace was still very strong. So then it was a matter of managing the gap to first of all Fernando [Alonso], and then Jenson [Button]. And there must be zero oil left in that gearbox because it literally went off the scale in those last five laps.

    “So we were glued to the data and the screen, just to see if he was going to make it to the end. But that was a very mature and measured drive with strong communication from his engineering team to help him nurse it to the end.”

    Vettel’s unusual problems, and the fact that it allowed Mark Webber to win his first race of the season as well as clinch third place in the drivers’ championship, inevitably prompted conspiracy theories that the team had engineered the situation deliberately.

    Horner laughed off those theories – which also did not make sense because team orders are now fully legal in F1.

    “Categorically anyone that listened to the conversation between the race engineers, or looked at the back of the garage at the amount of activity that was going on over that gearbox, would see it was genuine,” said Horner.

    “Of course there will always be people who have theories, but categorically there was an issue and that gearbox, how on earth it got to the end of the race is beyond me.

    “Thankfully it did and Mark ended up a deserving winner. He has been quick all weekend and, once he was released into the lead, he got his head down and just pulled away.”

    Source: Autosport.com

  13. So that’s it then!

    It’s a really strange feeling this year. It’s feels as if its gone so quick and yet looking back, it the start of the season seems ages ago.

    I can’t say it ended on a real high, but it was great to see Webber take the win at last. As usual it was left to Jenson Button to add some real excitement.

    Vettel described his race with a dodgy gearbox as a kin to Senna ’91. Hmmm I fucking think not Seb. Though given the modern gearboxes of today, I doubt ANYONE could repeat what Senna did that year.

    It’s been a pretty good season, despite the early end to the championship. I do mean early, cos way before it was “mathematically possible” to loose it, that outcome was never going to happen.

    But we’ve all sat through seasons which were incredibly boring with Shuey winning them before anyone got out of bed. At least this year we had plenty of overtaking and in the early part, great tyre wear. Fake or not, DRS made a difference and frankly it made even the dullest tracks seem much improved. Granted some track suited the system better than others be it making overtaking very easy indeed. Or some having little effect, but I welcome it and hope it stays. Aside from dropping all the stupid aero kit, it’s best best of a bad lot that the FIA has come up with to make F1 more exciting.

    Of course the best race by far the longest ever, Canada. Granted, watching it on a crowed beer tent opposite the Le Mans circuit helped ;)! Man alive that was just awesome, and proves further still, that given tricky conditions, Button can beat any other driver on the track. I’d easily put him up there with Senna and Schumacher for skills in wet and damp tracks. Seb, I wouldn’t.

    Talking of Red Bull, I have no clue what to make of them and the Red Team leaving FOTA, but unless everyone leaves, then you may as well rename F1 to “The Webber and Seb show”. Yes I don’t think even Ferrari can take real advantage of the reduced restrictions. That team is just chaos right now. I love them (both drivers aside), but they are lost and need direction. Just remember what/who it took to get them winning again the last time they sucked. Neither Alonso or Massa are close to inspiring the team to the Schumacher levels.

    I just hope Lewis is in a better place than he was in all this year. Granted a better car would have helped, but that guy needs to get his head straight. It doesn’t help that Jenson kicked his ass mainly (At least was a far better driver as a whole). I don’t see him going all out batshit crazy as Alonso Vs Lewis, the team is a far, far happier place than it was back then. However, like many professionals, he like his own way and for his equipment o be the best. When everything falls right, then he is an exceptional driver. When it all goes wrong? Well he doen’t have a paddy and though his toys out the pram, but he does then drive like a twat and fails, a lot.

    Trouble is of course, is that Red Bull are again I’m sure going to have the best car on the track. Unless the other teams can pull their socks up then I foresee the same out come next year. I would say the other teams could fine a loophole that Red Bull didn’t see. Sadly I doubt that’ll ever happen next year. Brawn GP was a fluke and I don’t see how having another year with 10’s of millions of pounds being wasted by Mr Newey.

    Anyways, I’ve been working all night and so it’s time for bed. Hope you enjoyed the read.

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