Vettel will also have in the back of his mind the fact that his team-mate Mark
Webber retired from yesterday’s race with an alternator failure, a
misfortune which has twice befallen Vettel already this year.
The day had begun with a classic bit of 11th hour F1 chicanery.
Ferrari’s
decision to break the seal on Felipe Massa’s gearbox, thereby inducing a
five-place grid penalty which lifted his team-mate Alonso up to seventh and
on to the clean side of the grid, a huge advantage at a brand new circuit
which has not yet been “rubbered in”, split the paddock roughly down the
middle.
Ferrari, a team with a clear history of favouring their lead driver, certainly
were not losing any sleep over it, although Massa might.
Already derided by some in Brazil for being Alonso’s patsy, Massa looked
understandably gloomy when asked for his thoughts on the grid pre-race. His
compatriot Rubens Barrichello, now retired from F1, must have felt a pang of
sympathy. Barrichello once played the same role for Michael
Schumacher, becoming so frustrated in the end that he had to leave
Maranello.
Massa, by contrast, has just signed up for another season, a decision which
raised some eyebrows in the sport considering his form. As he said himself:
It’s difficult to find a driver like me,” he said.
Either way, Ferrari’s ruse worked perfectly. After a star-spangled pre-race
featuring a full-on marching band and Hollywood stars ranging from Matt
LeBlanc to George Lucas, Alonso got off to a flier and was up to fourth spot
within a couple of corners. His day got even better when Webber retired from
third place on lap 18, just moments after being informed that his KERS unit
was misfiring.
It was the Australian’s first retirement with mechanical failure in 59 races,
a run stretching back to Japan 2009, and must have had Vettel’s side of the
garage sweating. The German has already retired twice this year with
alternator failures.
Instead it was Hamilton who posed the greatest threat to Vettel; the pair
engaging in a thrilling race-long game of cat and mouse. Every time Hamilton
closed to within a second or so of Vettel, threatening to get into the
one-second DRS range, the German would respond. From lap 35 onwards,
Hamilton was within range and with a sell-out crowd of 120,000 lapping up
the drama, stuck limpet-like to the back of the Red Bull for lap after lap.
Even the Westboro Baptist Church, who picketed this grand prix in protest at
the “wicked people of this land of vain idolaters”, might have been
persuaded to put down their banners declaring “God hates drunks, sluts and
F1 fags” and lap up the action.
Hamilton’s persistence was finally rewarded on lap 42 when he managed to pass
Vettel down the back straight using DRS.
Thereafter their roles were reversed with Vettel the hunter and Hamilton the
hunted, fending off the German for lap after lap.
Crucially, Vettel was never quite able to get within DRS range.
Hamilton hosted a party on the roof of the Hilton in downtown Austin following
qualifying on Saturday night. Ron Dennis, the man who signed Hamilton for McLaren
as a 13 year-old, guiding him all the way to the world title in
2008, was a notable absentee but the rest of the team, both sides of the
garage, turned up to bid their driver farewell.
It has been a tempestuous relationship down the years but there has never been
any doubt about Hamilton’s talent. He achieved his American dream in some
style here and reminded McLaren of what they will be missing next year.
America will surely welcome him back with open arms.
Leading Final Positions after Race (56 Laps): 1 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr)
McLaren 1hr 35mins 55.269secs, 2 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull
1:35:55.944, 3 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari 1:36:34.498, 4 Felipe Massa
(Bra) Ferrari 1:36:41.282, 5 Jenson Button (Gbr) McLaren 1:36:51.701, 6 Kimi
Raikkonen (Fin) Lotus F1 Team 1:36:59.694, 7 Romain Grosjean (Fra) Lotus F1
Team 1:37:05.582, 8 Nico Hulkenberg (Ger) Force India 1:37:09.061, 9 Pastor
Maldonado (Ven) Williams 1:37:09.794, 10 Bruno Senna (Bra) Williams
1:37:10.402, 11 Sergio Perez (Mex) Sauber-Ferrari 1:37:19.610, 12 Daniel
Ricciardo (Aus) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:37:20.140, 13 Nico Rosberg (Ger)
Mercedes GP 1:37:20.779, 14 Kamui Kobayashi (Jpn) Sauber-Ferrari at 1 Lap,
15 Paul di Resta (Gbr) Force India at 1 Lap, 16 Michael Schumacher (Ger)
Mercedes GP at 1 Lap, 17 Vitaly Petrov (Rus) Caterham at 1 Lap, 18 Heikki
Kovalainen (Fin) Caterham at 1 Lap, 19 Timo Glock (Ger) Marussia at 1 Lap,
20 Charles Pic (Fra) Marussia at 2 Laps, 21 Pedro de la Rosa (Spa) HRT-F1 at
2 Laps, 22 Narain Karthikeyan (Ind) HRT-F1 at 2 Laps
Not Classified: 23 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull 16 Laps completed, 24 Jean-Eric
Vergne (Fra) Scuderia Toro Rosso 14 Laps completed