At least the Americans know how to put on a show. Austin has been buzzing all
week and the pre-race grid was packed with famous faces, most of them trying
to get shots of themselves with their arms draped around a Dallas Cowgirl.
The sight of the diminutive Bernie Ecclestone lost in the middle of a bevy of
long-legged cheerleaders was about as good as it got all day. Formula
One’s chief executive had spent much of the previous week in the
High Court answering allegations that he bribed a German banker to
undervalue the sport in 2005 — which he denies — but he was back in his
element in Texas; smiling, shaking hands, whispering in ears.
Then the race started and, as he tends to do, Vettel got off to a cracker,
successfully keeping both his Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber and Lotus’s
Romain Grosjean behind him up the hill into the Circuit of the Americas’
spectacular turn one, surely one of the best opening corners on the
calendar, a tight left-hander that sweeps down and away into a series of
high-speed turns.
Vettel would almost certainly have sailed off into the distance immediately
but for the intervention of a safety car, which was brought out after Force
India’s Adrian Sutil made contact with the Williams of Pastor Maldonado,
sending his car careering into the barriers.
The presence of the safety car for three laps merely delayed the inevitable,
Vettel pulling out a gap of over six seconds to Grosjean in the 10 laps that
followed its withdrawal.
Behind the quadruple world champion the action was marginally more diverting.
Webber got boxed in at the start and dropped to fourth, but gradually fought
his way back, passing Hamilton on lap 13 before setting his sights on
Grosjean.
The Australian, who retires from F1 after this weekend’s race in Brazil,
closed to within a second of his man with 10 laps remaining but never
managed to see the job through despite the availability of DRS.
Hamilton finished a distant fourth but said afterwards that it “felt like a
win”. He denied that his exchanges with engineer Pete Bonnington were a sign
of frustration. Told to look after his tyres early in the race Hamilton
responded: “That’s what I’m doing, man. Let me focus.” Later, he came on the
radio to complain: “You need to give me some feedback, man — tyres,
temperatures…”
Mercedes team principal Ross Brawn, asked about his driver apparently wanting
to have it both ways, remarked drily: “That’s Lewis. We’re getting used to
that now.”
Not as used as we are getting to Vettel’s never-ending run of victories. “It
is not as if I am getting bored,” Vettel smiled.
He may not be but the majority of fans would not mind a little more
competition. Ferrari,
McLaren
and Mercedes badly need to raise their game because there are no prizes for
guessing who is going to win, and claim another slice of history, in Brazil
next Sunday.