The important stuff has been decided, which gives Formula One the opportunity for a party in Brazil – but here’s the story, in case you missed it…
Finally we reach the end. The Brazilian Grand Prix brings an end to a season that started nine months and a million years ago on a crisp Friday morning in Albert Park, Melbourne. Record books have been rewritten, championships decided and all that’s left are three days in Sao Paulo and then a mad dash back to the factories to put the finishing touches on next year’s car.
A dead rubber this weekend may be, but never-a-dull-race. Interlagos doesn’t allow processions, it dips and swirls and provides plenty of overtaking opportunities to keep a raucous crowd happy. It’s a great place to end the season on a high note.
So, here are the highlights of the season so far...
Seb on pole in Australia - 26/03/11
Winter testing hadn’t provided any concrete evidence of how the season was going to unfold. Ferrari looked like they meant business, McLaren were struggling, Mercedes looked good and Renault with their novel exhaust were a wild card. Red Bull didn’t pull up any trees but were there or thereabouts all through February. Then the season kicked off and in qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix, Sebastian Vettel set a pole time eight-tenths ahead of the competition. If that wasn’t dispiriting enough, he did it in a broken car. Game over before the lights went out? Well, not quite.
Lewis wins in Shanghai 17.04.11
Red Bull found out they weren’t going to have it all their own way as Lewis Hamilton won the Chinese Grand Prix in April. It confirmed the suspicion that tactics were crucial to get the best out of the new Pirelli tyres. Hamilton saved one set of option tyres from qualifying and did a three-stop race to Vettel’s two. Combined with a better start, it was enough to leave McLaren celebrating and the Red Bull pitwall full of red faces. The consolation was Mark Webber using the same tactics as Lewis to race from 18th on the grid to third, given the team its first double podium finish of the year.
If you’ve even wondered what new tyres vs old tyres looks like, this is Hamilton passing Vettel with four laps remaining. They’re both on the harder tyre, but Vettel’s are seven laps older…
Meanwhile, back in England it was still winter. We don’t usually show adverts, but this is actually quite funny…
Wet and wild in Montreal
Losing in China may have annoyed Seb because he didn’t let anyone else have a go on the top step for the next three races, and he gave every impression of making it four in a row, qualifying on pole in Montreal. Then it started to rain. End of Days rain. The sort of downpour that has bearded men building large wooden boats and lining up animals two-by-two.
The race was red flagged twice and the safety car came out half a dozen times but Vettel kept his cool and led every single lap – however, Jenson Button somehow contrived to win the race. Button had pitted six times, collided with his team-mate, barged Fernando Alonso off the track and been running dead last with 30 laps remaining. He couldn’t have made it tougher for himself had Ron Dennis dropped a live cobra in his cockpit. But somehow Button got it all together and relentlessly chased Vettel down. With a superior top speed and a long, long back straight, he closed in remorselessly on the final lap. Vettel, desperate to avoid being reeled back into DRS range pushed too hard and slid wide. Four hours and change after it started, Jenson Button won the Canadian Grand Prix
Wild, thrilling and unpredicatable… sums up the mad dash by F1 staff, two hours late and desperately trying to get to Pierre Trudeau Airport for the evening flights back to Europe. Sadly footage of that doesn’t exist. But here’s Martin Whitmarsh voicing over Button’s dramatic last lap pass.
Fernando at Silverstone
Silverstone was… weird. The new paddock and pitlane - virtually subterranean at one end - was open, the weather couldn’t decide what to do and settled for ‘changeable’ while F1’s brain’s trust couldn’t decide under what engine rules the race was going to run and also settled for ‘changeable’. As throwing out the existing rules usually impacts the leaders most, it looked like Red Bull were going to lose out but in the end what really cost them the race was a broken rear jack, a sticking wheel nut and two longer-than-usual pitstops. But Fernando Alonso did drive brilliantly and Red Bull definitely weren’t as spritely without their off-throttle blown diffuser blowing.
Neatly bookending things for Ferrari’s latest win, Fernando started proceedings with a lap in Frolián González’s 375, with which Ferrari took its first grand prix victory 60 years ago, also at Silverstone. If Bernie looks like he’s gritting his teeth, it’s worth noting that he owns this one, it’s worth quite a bit of money and Fernando isn’t known for his mechanically sympathy. And yes, Ferrari are definitely getting a helping hand from the FIA: that’s race director Charlie Whiting giving Fernando a push.
Vettel passes Alonso at Monza
Two things we know: Red Bull don’t win on the ‘engine’ tracks and Sebastian Vettel only wins from the front because he can’t overtake. Well, Seb won on the engine track at Spa and then seven days later did so again on the engine track at Monza. And just for good measure, he pulled off the overtaking move of the season, passing that famous shrinking violet Fernando Alonso.
Clean sweep in Korea
Seb clinched the Drivers’ title in Japan but worryingly for Red Bull, didn’t have the pace to beat Jenson Button in the race. That view was compounded when McLaren dominated practice five days later in Yeongyam and then become the first team to deny the RB7 pole position in 2011. The advantage, however, lasted all of three corners. Vettel passed Hamilton on the first lap and then simply drove away from the McLaren. Red Bull took the Constructors’ title and laid down a marker that they’re not taking it easy with the trophies in the bag. Should make Interlagos interesting to watch…
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