“Of course,” Alonso said when asked if he stood by his prediction. “There are
75 points available. We are 13 behind. We know that we need to improve.
“We are not fast enough, especially on Saturdays, as I said, but
hopefully we can improve the situation in Abu Dhabi or in USA. The races are
long, and as we saw today with Mark [Webber], a KERS problem can happen to
anyone.
“It can happen to Seb, it can happen to me and it can happen to all of
us. There are still many points on the table and I’m still very optimistic.”
Alonso’s bullishness drew an equally punchy retort from Red Bull team
principal Christian Horner, who on being told of Alonso’s words remarked
that “talk was cheap”.
“We can all prophesise but our focus now is on Abu Dhabi,” Horner said. “It is
about having perfect weekends. Fernando is a quality driver and Ferrari are
a quality team.
“He is remarkably consistent and we are going to have to perform at our
very best if we are going to maintain our lead.”
That is certainly true. Like a dog with a bone, Alonso is refusing to let go
of this championship. Despite seeing his once huge lead decimated in the
space of a month, he keeps plugging away, maximising his opportunities,
waiting for the day Ferrari can provide him again with a race-winning car.
And if they can’t the Spaniard, who enjoys his magic, is clearly prepared to
use every trick up his sleeve to unsettle his enemy.
The mind games have started already. Alonso remarked this week that he was
racing “against Adrian Newey”, Red Bull’s wonder designer, rather than
Vettel, a comment which drew a defensive response from the German. Was it
intended as a barb, Jenson Button was asked.
“Alonso is very clever,” was the McLaren driver’s response. On the track, too,
Alonso is unrelenting. After a pre-race that felt slightly flat given the
location – Sachin Tendulkar’s no-show didn’t help, nor did the fact that
crowds were down a good 30,000 on last year – the race began in frenetic
fashion.
While the Red Bulls got away cleanly, Alonso was immediately harrying the
McLarens of Button and Lewis Hamilton. By lap five he had passed both of
them and thereafter proceeded to lurk menacingly a good 10 seconds behind
Vettel.
At one stage during the final 10 laps it looked as if Alonso might be rewarded
for his persistence, as the underside of Vettel’s car started to spark as it
scraped the ground.
Horner’s familiar nervous foot jiggle went into overdrive at this point. In
the end, Vettel held on but who is to say next time the car won’t break
down?
As long as Alonso can remain in touch, this championship is alive. One thing
is for sure, it is most certainly between the two of them now.
Webber’s third place, and Hamilton’s fourth in a race which was mostly notable
for his changing of his steering wheel during one lightning quick pit-stop,
has ended any lingering hope they had of getting back into things.
Webber even walked out of the post-race press conference while Alonso and
Vettel were still speaking.
They didn’t seem to notice. The blinkers are on now.
How they finished:
1 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull 1hr 31mins 10.744secs, 2 Fernando Alonso
(Spa) Ferrari 1:31:20.181, 3 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull 1:31:23.961, 4 Lewis
Hamilton (Gbr) McLaren 1:31:24.653, 5 Jenson Button (Gbr) McLaren
1:31:37.010, 6 Felipe Massa (Bra) Ferrari 1:31:55.418, 7 Kimi Raikkonen
(Fin) Lotus F1 Team 1:31:55.971, 8 Nico Hulkenberg (Ger) Force India
1:32:05.742, 9 Romain Grosjean (Fra) Lotus F1 Team 1:32:06.847, 10 Bruno
Senna (Bra) Williams 1:32:25.719, 11 Nico Rosberg (Ger) Mercedes GP
1:32:32.438, 12 Paul di Resta (Gbr) Force India 1:32:33.559, 13 Daniel
Ricciardo (Aus) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:32:36.808, 14 Kamui Kobayashi (Jpn)
Sauber-Ferrari 1:32:37.239, 15 Jean-Eric Vergne (Fra) Scuderia Toro Rosso at
1 Lap, 16 Pastor Maldonado (Ven) Williams at 1 Lap, 17 Vitaly Petrov (Rus)
Caterham at 1 Lap, 18 Heikki Kovalainen (Fin) Caterham at 1 Lap, 19 Charles
Pic (Fra) Marussia at 1 Lap, 20 Timo Glock (Ger) Marussia at 2 Laps, 21
Narain Karthikeyan (Ind) HRT-F1 at 2 Laps, 22 Michael Schumacher (Ger)
Mercedes GP at 5 Laps
Not Classified: 23 Pedro de la Rosa (Spa) HRT-F1 42 Laps completed, 24
Sergio Perez (Mex) Sauber-Ferrari 20 Laps completed
Remaining races
Abu Dhabi: Nov 4
Red Bull are rampant at the moment and Abu Dhabi is a happy hunting ground for
Vettel. He won the championship at Yas Marina in 2010 and is seeking a
hat-trick of wins here.
United States: Nov 18
A journey into the unknown for Formula One, which travels to Austin for the
first time. If Alonso is still in the title hunt after this race, he will
feel destiny is on his side.
Brazil: Nov 25
The Spaniard was asked yesterday which of the remaining circuits would suit
Ferrari. “I think Brazil will be quite good for us and hopefully it’s a
happy grand prix,” he said. Blind faith or premonition?