Sebastian Vettel sets a new Formula 1 record with his ninth consecutive race victory at Interlagos.
Red Bull Racing team-mate Mark Webber waves goodbye from the championship with second position at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
As for Fernando Alonso, the Ferrari driver gave chase to the Red Bulls throughout the race but the end result was a podium.
The threat of rain showers did not played a major factor during the race and even thought it wasn’t a straightforward victory for Vettel, the four-time world champion still had to do some overtaking plus recover from a pit-stop drama.
Vettel had lost the lead at the start as both Nico Rosberg and Alonso got away better off the grid.
Rosberg led out of the Senna S, but Alonso ran out of space and lost momentum to Lewis Hamilton.
And yet, both Mercedes were overtaken at the end of lap one though, with Vettel easily reclaiming his usual number one spot from Rosberg as Alonso passed Hamilton.
Webber, who had won the opening lap battle with Felipe Massa, quickly followed Alonso past Hamilton, with both soon overtaking Rosberg as well.
Alonso put up a fight against Webber and did not lose second position until lap 13. He then regained it when the Red Bull had an issue on its right-rear wheel at the first pitstops, but Webber only needed two laps to catch and re-pass the Ferrari.
Although Webber was able to chip away at his team-mate lead, the world champion was always able to respond.
Vettel’s big lead turned out to be crucial as both Red Bulls made simultaneous final pitstops – to the surprise of a crew prepared for Webber, not Vettel.
That halved Vettel’s advantage to six seconds, and the lead battle then threatened to come truly alive as rain appeared with both Webber and Alonso started closing in.
In the event, the thick dark clouds refrained from opening during the final laps, and the top trio spread out again, allowing Vettel to take a record-equalling thirteenth win of the year.
With Rosberg dropping back through the field, Hamilton and Massa began battling for fourth until both hit trouble.
Massa was left furious by a drive-through penalty for crossing the pit entry line, while Hamilton tangled with Valtteri Bottas as the Williams driver moved to un-lap himself into the Descida do Lago.
With Bottas crashing into retirement, Hamilton picked up a puncture and was given a drive-through penalty for causing the collision.
Those dramas played a part to McLaren’s best result during its painful 2013 season, though Jenson Button and Sergio Perez’s progress from P14 and P19 on the grid to fourth and sixth was mainly down to excellent race pace. The duo finished in between Rosberg at the chequered flag.
Massa and Hamilton recovered to seventh and ninth, split by the Sauber of Nico Hulkenberg.
Daniel Ricciardo gave Toro Rosso the final championship point in his last appearance before leaving for Red Bull Racing, holding Paul di Resta, Esteban Gutierrez and Adrian Sutil off.
As for Lotus, after a promising season the team came to a miserable end. Romain Grosjean suffered a massive engine failure while running eighth, while Heikki Kovalainen was outside the points again in P14 having fallen to P18 on the opening lap.
Marussia beat Caterham in the constructors’ championship’s tail-end battle for the first time.
Caterham had been the quicker of the pair at Interlagos, but Giedo van der Garde was penalised for ignoring blue flags and Charles Pic had a late suspension failure, meaning Jules Bianchi gave Marussia the ‘win’ in the race day battle too.
So a fantastic achievement by Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull Racing. Victorious once again this season with eight consecutive wins and taking the Formula 1 championship for the fourth successive time with 13 victories in total.
Next year will be fascinating as new rules are set to shake up the order but can the world champion’s continue that winning formula? It’s going to be interesting to see how their rivals will do to beat them.
Brazilian Grand Prix, race results after 71 laps:
1. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1h32:36.300
2. Webber Red Bull-Renault +10.452
3. Alonso Ferrari +18.9
4. Button McLaren-Mercedes +37.3
5. Rosberg Mercedes +39.0
6. Perez McLaren-Mercedes +44.0
7. Massa Ferrari +49.1
8. Hulkenberg Sauber-Ferrari +1:04.2
9. Hamilton Mercedes +1:12.9
10. Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari +1 lap
11. Di Resta Force India-Mercedes +1 lap
12. Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari +1 lap
13. Sutil Force India-Mercedes +1 lap
14. Kovalainen Lotus-Renault +1 lap
15. Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari +1 lap
16. Maldonado Williams-Renault +1 lap
17. Bianchi Marussia-Cosworth +2 laps
18. van der Garde Caterham-Renault +2 laps
19. Chilton Marussia-Cosworth +2 laps
Fastest lap: Webber, 1:15.436
Not classified/retirements:
Pic Caterham-Renault 59 laps
Bottas Williams-Renault 46 laps
Grosjean Lotus-Renault 3 laps
World Championship standings, round 19:
Drivers:
1. Vettel 397
2. Alonso 242
3. Webber 199
4. Hamilton 189
5. Raikkonen 183
6. Rosberg 171
7. Grosjean 132
8. Massa 112
9. Button 73
10. Hulkenberg 51
11. Perez 49
12. Di Resta 48
13. Sutil 29
14. Ricciardo 20
15. Vergne 13
16. Gutierrez 6
17. Bottas 4
18. Maldonado 1
Constructors:
1. Red Bull-Renault 596
2. Mercedes 360
3. Ferrari 354
4. Lotus-Renault 315
5. McLaren-Mercedes 122
6. Force India-Mercedes 77
7. Sauber-Ferrari 57
8. Toro Rosso-Ferrari 33
9. Williams-Renault 5
Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton was left feeling baffled by his accident with Valtteri Bottas. Autosport.com has the details.
Lewis Hamilton said he could not understand what happened in his Brazilian Grand Prix collision with Valtteri Bottas.
Williams driver Bottas was trying to un-lap himself from Hamilton’s fourth-placed Mercedes when they clashed under braking for the Descida do Lago.
Hamilton was adjudged to have caused the incident and given a drive-through penalty. Having also picked up a puncture, he ended up finishing ninth, while Bottas had to retire on the spot.
“I guess I caused a collision – but with a backmarker trying to overtake me,” said Hamilton.
“I don’t really know what happened, if I’m honest, I need to go and watch the replay.
“I really can’t quite work it out. I moved to the left. He outbraked me and we touched. Obviously I did something wrong.
“I’m a bit gutted that I lost so many points for the team.”
The Briton reckoned he had a shot at beating Fernando Alonso to the final podium position but for the collision.
“I was catching Fernando, so I think we had a chance to at least fight with Fernando,” said Hamilton.
While Mercedes secured a breakthrough second place in the constructors’ championship courtesy of Nico Rosberg’s fifth place and Hamilton’s ninth, the latter admitted it was hard to feel happy at the end of the season.
“The highlight is the team getting second in the constructors’. Otherwise it’s not been a particularly spectacular year for me in terms of my performances,” Hamilton said.
“I hope there’s more to come in the future.
“I don’t feel much positivity at the moment, but I’m sure over the break I’ll regain it.”
Ferrari’s Felipe Massa was not happy about his drive-through penalty for crossing the white line in the pit entry and has lambasts the race officials over it. Autosport.com has the news story.
Felipe Massa believes he did nothing wrong during the Brazilian Grand Prix, and was strongly critical of the FIA officials for handing him a penalty.
The Ferrari driver, in his final race for the Italian squad before moving to Williams, received a drive-through penalty for crossing over the pit entry line on a flying lap instead of staying on the left, as had been ordered by race director Charlie Whiting ahead of the weekend.
An angry Massa was fighting for fourth place at the time of the incident, and he reckons the penalty was unfair.
“It was really a shame. I was having a great race,” said Massa. “And then, suddenly, I got a drive-through penalty for crossing the line on the main straight.
“I didn’t do anything wrong. I didn’t overtake cars outside the track, I didn’t hold anyone up. It was really a shame.
“These guys they think they have all the power and they can do all they want. It’s a shame more for them, not for me. Everyone saw it. I’m sure I wasn’t the only car to do that.
“I think it was pretty unacceptable, to be honest. I’m sure I was not the only car that crossed that line, but I was the only car that got a drive-through for that.”
Massa went on to finish in seventh place, but reckons a podium place would have been possible, as he revealed team-mate Fernando Alonso had agreed to let him through if he was in a position to finish in the top three.
“My race today was going to be fourth place and maybe third, Fernando was maybe going to back off and let me by,” said Massa. “The race could’ve been a much better result than it was, but it was still very emotional.
“For sure I’m happier now than in the race because it was my last race in a Ferrari car.
“I’ll have to get used to being in a different colour but I also need to say thank you to everybody who I’ve worked with, everybody who gave me the opportunity to race for Ferrari.”
After a difficult 2013 season, McLaren have finished the final race on a high with both Jenson Button and Sergio Perez finished in the points. For Jenson, this result was much needed. Autosport.com has the story.
Jenson Button admitted McLaren desperately needed to end its 2013 Formula 1 season on a high, after he and Sergio Perez charged to fourth and sixth places in the Brazilian Grand Prix.
McLaren has been off the pace all season, and ended the year without a podium for the first time since 1980.
But Button and Perez’s progress from 14th and 19th on the grid to top-six finishes at Interlagos buoyed the team ahead of the winter.
“It was an amazing job by everyone. It seems that we work better when we don’t actually do any practice in the dry…” said Button.
“In the simulator this always felt like a very special track for us. I’m pleased with fourth, it’s almost the third that we came here aiming for.
“We needed this at the end of the year – especially for myself, I’ve had a rough time in the last few races.
“Things happened to different people in the race, but you take it because it happens to you too.”
Perez, who was in his last race for McLaren before being replaced by Kevin Magnussen, was pleased but also felt that more was possible.
He had lost five places on the grid due to a penalty for a gearbox change prompted by his Saturday crash, and had to ease off to save fuel while catching Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes for fifth late on.
“Unfortunately from where we started it was a long way through. We were unlucky to lose those five places yesterday,” said Perez.
“But we recovered well. I struggled to do more and I had to save fuel at the end of the race so I couldn’t attack Nico anymore.
“I was praying for more rain, but it didn’t come.”
Button finished a few seconds ahead of Rosberg and Perez, and said he had struggled towards the end.
“The last two stints were strangely very difficult because I didn’t know what the guys behind were doing in terms of stops and how much they were looking after their tyres,” he said.
“I think I could’ve pulled a good gap, but I didn’t want to destroy the tyres and be left there stranded.”
Without that drive-through penalty for Felipe Massa, Ferrari team-mate Fernando Alonso has said he would have let the Brazilian through to score a podium result. Autosport.com has the details.
Fernando Alonso was ready to move aside in the Brazilian Grand Prix to hand team-mate Felipe Massa a podium finish in his final race with Ferrari.
Massa had moved up from ninth on the grid to fourth before being given a controversial drive-through penalty for crossing the pitlane entry lines while on flying laps.
Alonso finished third, and confirmed that he had been keen to help Massa in their last race as team-mates after four seasons together.
“It was the last race for Felipe at Ferrari and we wanted to help in whatever way to try to celebrate a podium finish with Felipe, but he got a drive-through, unfortunately,” said Alonso.
“I’m sad for him for this race but happy for the last four years. He has been an amazing team-mate.”
Massa eventually took seventh following the penalty, and was certain he had been on for a podium.
“For sure Fernando would’ve let me by at the end, so I’m sure the situation would’ve been completely different,” he said.
“But in the end, I don’t want to think about that, I want to think about the nice time I’ve had with Ferrari, and the friends I met and all the opportunities I had as well.”
Asked by AUTOSPORT to explain exactly what he and Alonso had agreed, Massa replied: “We didn’t have any agreement, to be honest, but he came to say ‘whenever you are behind me, I will let you by’.”
Mark Webber drove out of Formula One with the wind in his hair, a smile on his face and Red Bull overalls soaked in champagne after one final podium celebration at the season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix on Sunday.
The Australian finished runner-up, equalling his best result of a year dominated by race winner and quadruple world champion team mate Sebastian Vettel, at Interlagos in his 215th and last grand prix.
The voice of Red Bull team principal Christian Horner, himself only three years older than his 37-year-old driver, came over the radio as Webber crossed the line for his final competitive lap.
“One more lap Mark, enjoy it,” he said, and the chisel-jawed veteran made sure he savoured every moment – for once concentrating on driving slowly rather than fast.
After taking the chequered flag, Webber removed his helmet halfway through his slowing down lap to show his face to the crowd and marshals and allow himself to hear the applause and feel the breeze.
“In this sport it’s not always you have the personal touch,” he told BBC television. “We have helmets on all the time so they don’t always see a driver in a Formula One car without a helmet.
“It was nice to get it off, see the marshals, see the fans, it was a really nice thing for me just to experience. I heard a lot of noises I don’t normally hear with the helmet on.”
Webber, famously straight-talking ever since his astonishing debut in 2002 when he finished fifth for tiny Minardi in his home race, has always been one for the direct, no-nonsense approach both in and outside the sport and Sunday was no exception.
The winner of nine grands prix in 12 seasons, including two Monaco Grand Prix victories but none this year, said the hardest part of the day had been just steeling himself to get into the car at the start.
Welcomed to the garage before the race to the sounds of ‘Waltzing Matilda’, with the Australian flag hung over his car and ‘Thank You Mark’ written on his pit board, the last farewell was always going to be emotional even if Webber was a long way from reaching for the tissues.
“I was quite overcome with some emotion, to be honest,” he said. “Just that moment of helmets on, stepping in the car…I did it but it was actually the strongest emotion I’ve probably had all day.”
On the podium he joined Vettel, who graciously insisted his team mate be interviewed first, and Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, one of his best friends in the paddock.
“To finish on the podium with those two guys, they have been the best of this generation and I’ve raced them a lot…meant a lot to me in showing I could still drive well at the end of my career,” said Webber.
“I’m over the worst of it today in terms of the roller-coaster of emotions, I’m happy to leave here tonight. And yeah, that’s it.”
Before the race the Australian left no doubt he was more than ready for his next challenge racing Le Mans sportscars with Porsche and was leaving at the right time.
The man who might have won the championship in 2010, and who leaves with 42 podium positions and 13 poles, recognised that what he might have lacked in outright speed he had made up for with sheer hard work and determination.
“Maybe I did not have the most absolute natural flair and talent but I knew that if I grafted and worked hard I’d soon get awesome results,” he said in a Red Bull review of his career.
“I also smashed a lot of guys who had more talent than me because they didn’t work as hard as me,” added the former Williams and Jaguar racer.
“I learned that about myself. How important it was to graft and just get my head down. I’ve been doing that for most of my career.
“The results I’ve had in F1 have been great but it’s about the journey as well and I’ve had an amazing journey.”
Source: Reuters
The reason why Felipe Massa was penalised during the Brazilian Grand Prix according to Autosport.com.
Felipe Massa was penalised during the Brazilian Grand Prix because he contravened a track limits rule clarified in the build-up to the race.
Interlagos’s unusual pit entry has been a contentious topic for many years, as the racing line on the left-hand kink leading onto the pit straight crosses it.
This has led to fears of an accident if a car flat-out on a flying lap came upon a car slowing for the pitlane speed limit.
Just over an hour before Sunday’s grand prix, FIA Formula 1 race director Charlie Whiting issued a clarification of the rules regarding that section of track.
An image sent to teams marked an area of the white line from parallel with the end of the left-hand-side Armco barrier to the start of the pitwall as the ‘track edge’, and ordered that cars could not cross it with all four wheels.
It was this line that Massa was judged to have crossed illegally, prompting the drive-through penalty that dropped him from fourth to an eventual seventh in his Ferrari farewell.
The proceeding section of white line leading up to ‘point c’ in the FIA image was labelled part of the pit entry and was fine to cross on a fast lap.
Massa, in his final race for Ferrari before moving to Williams, admitted he had breached the rule, but argued that others had done the same and that the regulation had been created ad hoc.
“Sure, I crossed the line a few times, but maybe I was not the only car that crossed there. and this rule is something they’ve invented now,” he said.
“If you really need to do that, then you should penalise everybody who passed it.”
Asked by AUTOSPORT if Ferrari had received a proper warning before the penalty, team boss Stefano Domencali said: “Yes, there was a warning but it was very harsh.
“There was not really any safety aspect, there was not really any gain of any kind of advantage.
“You see many times track limits not respected. But anyway, that decision was taken and it was very harsh considering the result.”
Williams driver Valtteri Bottas commented after the race that he did nothing wrong when unlapping Lewis Hamilton. Autosport.com has the details.
Valtteri Bottas is confident he did nothing wrong in his Brazilian Grand Prix collision with Lewis Hamilton.
Bottas was attempting to un-lap himself from Hamilton’s Mercedes down the outside when they came together on the approach to the Descida do Lago.
The stewards ruled that Hamilton had caused an avoidable collision by not leaving the Williams sufficient room, although Hamilton declared himself baffled by the incident and penalty.
Bottas said he could only assume that Hamilton had not seen him coming. The Williams had a temporary pace advantage having just pitted for new medium tyres.
“At that point I was going straight and I think, possibly, he didn’t see me,” said the Finn, who had to retire as a result.
“It wasn’t a big impact, but it was enough to damage my car. Those things, they happen so quickly.
“I feel like I didn’t do anything wrong and I would do that overtaking manoeuvre again in the future. I see it as an unlucky situation as it was such a small collision.
“I think it would’ve been possible for me to overtake him on the outside, without going on the kerb.
“When I got alongside him there was some room, but when we got into the corner the room was getting smaller and smaller. There was no time to react to it.”
The Formula 1 rookie admitted that he had not realised he was trying to un-lap himself rather than passing for a position, but still stood by his attempt to overtake.
“I didn’t know I was one lap behind him, I thought we were racing,” said Bottas.
“But even though I was one lap behind him, I still tried to overtake because at this track, in the middle sector, if you are behind somebody it’s very easy to start graining the tyres as you slide a bit more.
“I knew with the top speed we had on the main straight we wouldn’t be able to overtake there, so it was a completely planned move.
“I used up all my KERS and was trying to get him from the outside, and then we hit.”
Williams driver Pastor Maldonado and Toro Rosso rival Jean-Eric Vergne have escaped a penalty for their Brazilian Grand Prix collision.
The duo made contact on lap 65 of the 2013 Formula 1 season finale when Vergne dived down the inside of Maldonado at the Senna S.
The Williams was sent into a spin while the Toro Rosso continued to finish in 15th position, a place ahead of Maldonado.
The stewards deemed no driver was to blame for the accident.
“The stewards do not believe either driver of car #16 or car #18 were wholly or predominantly to blame for the incident,” a statement said.
Maldonado, in his last race with Williams, said Vergne had been too optimistic with his move.
“It is a very hard place [to overtake] to understand it – I didn’t see him,” Maldonado said.
“From my point of view he was very optimistic, I was still ahead, and that is it. Nothing very special.”
Vergne reckoned Maldonado should have left him space.
“I came up the inside of him at Turn 1 and he didn’t leave me any room, so we touched and he spun,” said the Frenchman.
Source: Autosport.com
This was a disappointing race for Heikki Kovalainen. The Lotus driver could only finished in P14 and has blamed his start for the poor race. Autosport.com has the news story.
Heikki Kovalainen has blamed his failure to get the start right for his disappointing result in the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The Finn fell from 11th to 15th on the first lap, then dropped behind both Pastor Maldonado and Paul di Resta on lap two to run second, partly as a result of struggling with tyre temperature.
He went on to finish a lapped 14th and while he was satisfied with his performance during practice and qualifying, he was not pleased with how the race went.
“The disappointing was just Sunday, because the rest was OK,” Kovalainen told AUTOSPORT.
“Yesterday, in qualifying, it was not perfect but it was not a disaster.
“Today, again, I struggled at the start because I couldn’t get the procedure right and I was straight away on the back foot.
“After that, we had to gamble a little bit, stopping a little bit early to try to jump some cars but the start was the big issue today.”
Kovalainen, replacing Kimi Raikkonen in the final two races of the season, also made a bad start from eighth on the grid in last week’s United States GP, falling from eighth to 12th.
But after working hard on the procedures since then, he did not expect the same problem at Interlagos.
“I had some troubles at Austin with the start and we have done a lot of work this week trying to make sure that the start was good and I still struggled with that, so it was disappointing.
“The reaction time in Austin was only because I was out of synch with the launch procedure and was still pressing buttons when everybody went.
“This time, I gave myself more time to get everything right but I still didn’t get the settings correct for the start.”
The Finn failed to score any points as Raikkonen’s stand-in, and Lotus finished the season in fourth place in the constructors’ championship.
Lotus’ third driver Davide Valsecchi, who believed he would land the seat before it was handed to Kovalainen, said on Twitter right after the race that he was disappointed he had not been picked.
“I told to Lotus that was better to choose my heart and my motivation than the experience of Kova,” he wrote. “I’m really sorry they didn’t do it.”
Safety car fear was the main reason for Red Bull Racing’s drama during the second round of pit-stops. Autosport.com has the details.
Red Bull put Sebastian Vettel’s pitstop drama in the Brazilian Grand Prix down to a very late strategy call amid fears of a safety car.
Vettel was left stationary in the pits for several seconds while his mechanics hunted for an errant right front wheel that had been left in the garage.
Team principal Christian Horner said that the mistake was made because team-mate Mark Webber had initially been due into the pits for a scheduled stop.
But the team then ordered Vettel in at the last second too to stave off the threat of a safety car following the collision between Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas.
“As soon as we saw the accident for all intents and purpose it looked like it was going to be a safety car,” explained Horner.
“Where Sebastian was on the circuit, if the safety car had picked him up at the exit of the pitlane he would have done a whole lap behind the safety car and everybody behind him would have had a free stop. So we made a very late call to say ‘pit now’.
“The guys were already expecting Mark on a scheduled stop that lap and then, of course, it was such a late call to get tyres out.
“It looked remarkably reminiscent of last year [when Vettel suffered another troublesome pitstop] but they recovered tremendously well and, thankfully with the buffer we had, we did not lose with either car any positions.”
Despite the time that both cars lost, Vettel and Webber were able to rejoin still ahead of Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso.
“It was obviously not the guys’ cleanest day in the pitlane, which we can let them off every now and again because they’ve had a superb season in the pitlane,” said Webber.
“When I braked for the pitlane line, I looked on the big screen and I could see that Seb was in the box, saw on the TV that he was pitting and I thought ‘I hope it’s a replay’ but it wasn’t.
“When I got over the top, he was in the bloody box so I thought ‘shit, we’ve got a bit on here now’.
“It was obviously a complete surprise, uncharacteristic of the team to do something quite tricky and risky, when there wasn’t a huge amount to risk.
“But it turns out obviously that there was an issue at the start of Seb’s stop which snowballed into me and then we had the little Spanish lion on the back of me again.”
On the slowing down lap after crossing the finishing line for the final time, Red Bull’s Mark Webber took off his racing helmet and said that this was a nice gesture. Autosport.com has the story.
Mark Webber said he was proud that he chose to close his Formula 1 career by removing his helmet for his final slowing-down lap.
The Red Bull driver completed his journey back to the Brazilian Grand Prix parc ferme without his crash helmet after finishing second to team-mate Sebastian Vettel.
Webber admitted that getting the helmet off while in motion had been harder than expected.
“It’s not easy to get the HANS device away from the helmet so I spent half a lap trying to get the left hand side off,” he said.
“I finally got it there but the cars are bloody noisy with no helmet on, I know that much…
“So it was really noisy, all the vibrations and you can hear lots of things that you don’t want to be hearing with the helmet on, that’s for sure.”
He said his intention had been to show the fans something different.
“In this sport, it’s not always easy to show the person that’s behind the wheel,” Webber explained.
“We can in lots of other sports but in Formula 1 we’ve always got the helmet on so it was nice to drive back with the helmet off.
“The only time you’re seen with the helmet off is on the podium if we have a good day.
“In the last sector, I got it a little bit jammed, so I think the marshals were a little bit worried that I couldn’t turn left but in the end, it was fine.”
Webber added that he was also pleased that it was Vettel and Fernando Alonso who shared his final F1 podium.
“It’s been a real pleasure for me to finish today’s race like this – to finish on the podium with arguably the two best guys of the generation we’re in at the moment,” he said.
“I hold them in very high esteem. I’m happy with the finish and I’m happy to go and do something different now.”
The Australian will now join Porsche’s new LMP1 programme for the Le Mans 24 Hours and World Endurance Championship.