F1 News
Date: 26/November/2012
One of the most unpredictable
seasons in F1 history came to a dramatic conclusion at Sao Paulo, Brazil - when
Sebastian Vettel survived 71 laps with a damaged car to clinch his third title
by just three points over Fernando Alonso.
The Championship see-sawed back
and forth in favour of Vettel or Alonso several times during the race, with the
tension raised by intermittent rain showers that tormented tyre choice, plus
two safety car periods.
Vettel began with a healthy 13
point advantage over Alonso, but made a slow start and was then struck into a
spin by Bruno Senna at turn four.
Amazingly, Vettel was able to
continue - despite visible damage to the right-rear section of his car -
finishing the first lap 22nd and last, with Alonso moving from
seventh to fifth.
The Ferrari star needed a podium
even if Vettel didn’t finish and soon moved into third behind the McLarens of
Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button.
The pressure was on Vettel, but
with his Red Bull holding together he moved rapidly through the field and was
sixth by the time of his first pit stop.
The middle stages saw Vettel and
Alonso circulating together in fourth and fifth, but Vettel - having lost his
radio - surrendered time and places when he was forced to pit twice in the
space of four laps due to the worsening rain.
To make matters worse, Nico
Hulkenberg - who had emerged as a surprise victory challenger to the McLarens -
lost control of his Force India and wiped out race leader Hamilton.
With Hamilton out and Hulkenberg
penalised, Alonso reached second place with less than ten laps to go.
Vettel was seventh and couldn’t
afford to lose another place, but the German held his nerve and collected sixth
position by passing countryman Michael Schumacher.
The race then ended with another
safety car period - the first having been to clear debris in the middle stages -
confirming Button as winner from Alonso and team-mate Felipe Massa.
Vettel thus becomes the youngest
ever triple F1 World Champion, at the age of just 25, having won his three
titles in a row.
“That was incredible,” said Vettel.
“Everything that could happen, happened!
“I was hit at turn four for no
reason. I don’t know what happened, but usually when you have an accident like
that it's the end of the race. I was just rolling backwards down the road to
try and avoid the other cars that were driving straight at me.
“The car was clearly damaged. In
the wet I could make up some time, but in the dry we were nowhere on the
straights and our tyres were suffering.
“We lost the radio, which is so
crucial in these conditions, and stopped a lap too early for the second pit
stop and fitted dry tyres, then the intermediate tyres were not ready when I
came back in because there was no radio.
“And then to finish under the
safety car - at that moment I didn't know if I had done enough to be Champion. I
had seen the crash between Nico and Hamilton, and I knew Fernando was ahead of
me, so I wasn’t sure. To be told I was Champion felt unbelievable.
“I think everybody got to see a
great show today and we had to really fight until the end.
“To win a third title, especially
here in Sao Paulo, the place where one of my heroes Ayrton Senna was born and is
buried, is difficult to put into words. I was crying in the car, so I'm maybe
happy that the radio wasn’t working!”
For Alonso, 31, the quest for a
third crown continues, having been made to wait since 2006.
“I feel good. It was very
frustrating in Abu Dhabi two years ago because we had the title in our hands
and we lost it. Here is the completely the opposite. I’m so proud and happy to
fight until the last lap with the package we had.
“That is the best thing for me, to
feel proud of myself, it was by far the best season of my career and I will remember
2012 like some dream season. Obviously we didn’t achieve the points to win the
title but I won so many things this year: so much respect from everybody.
"The race was more or less
what we wanted. Mixed conditions and very, very difficult. One of the most
difficult races we ever drove. I think with the conditions out there and you
feel that you are with the wrong tyre every lap but everyone is in the same
position so you keep fighting.
“The team told me that Sebastian
had spun and was last at the start. But it was not a big drama at that time. It
was more a message to calm down and stay cool because we needed to keep it in
the track.
“Obviously you are not in control
of what your rivals do. Second for us meant we needed Sebastian eighth, which
is a very strange combination of results. So we were hoping for a little
miracle, as we have been all year really.
“We had this little present to
fight for the Championship until the last race. So we enjoyed the race, we did
our job and the dream continued until today.”
Vettel failed to score in three of
the 20 rounds and Alonso twice. However Vettel - who won just once in the first
13 races – was then able to win four of the final seven events.
“At the start of the season we
were fighting with the car, I couldn't use my tricks or my style to make it
work,” explained Vettel. “I didn't have enough rear stability to work with the
brakes and get the car into the corners the way I like.
“We tried everything and eventually
we did a step that was big enough and in the right direction that allowed me to
do more of what I like, so naturally things came in our direction.”
Ferrari by contrast never made a
significant performance breakthrough.
Alonso took all three of his wins
in the first half of the season, then battled valiantly to stay in the title
hunt by turning poor qualifying performances into podiums on race day.
“I think we have the best team in
terms of preparing for the races. Zero mechanical problems, good pitstops, good
starts, good strategy. But we were too slow,” he declared.
“We were behind the Red Bulls and the
McLarens and now in the last couple of grands prix, behind Williams and Force
India as well. This is something we must improve next year because we cannot
fight for a World Championship if we are too slow.”
The final words on F1 2012 go to
Button, who finished fifth in the Championship with three wins.
“It’s pretty obvious it was quite
an unusual season, especially at the start of the year, having seven different
winners from so many different teams,” said the Englishman.
“I think a lot of it was down to
the way we were getting the tyres working or not working. Some of the teams that
aren’t normally at the front also did a very good job over the winter.
“But during the year the bigger
teams worked out how to use the tyres and had more resources for development, so
you saw a difference towards the end of the season. Not as big as some might
have thought though. I don’t think we expected a Force India to be leading the
race today.
“So, I think it shows Formula One
is a lot closer than it used to be; in terms of regulations it’s a lot tighter
and also with not many regulation changes, it brings the field very close - and
I think we’ll see that again next year.”
Button will be joined by new
team-mate Sergio Perez next season, with Hamilton switching to Mercedes in
place of Schumacher.
The 2013 season will begin in
Melbourne, Australia on March 17.
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