Vettel ‘staying sharp’, Alonso ‘anything can happen’

F1 News

Date: 23/November/2012

Either Sebastian Vettel or Fernando Alonso will be crowned an F1 World Champion for the third time in Sunday’s Brazilian season finale.

Red Bull’s Vettel is favourite, arriving at the 20^th race with a 13-point advantage over Ferrari’s Alonso, whom Vettel has also beaten in five of the last six races.

But the quick-changing Sao Paolo weather and reliability concerns for the Red Bull - Vettel’s team-mate Mark Webber retired with yet another alternator problem last weekend in Texas - means nothing can be taken for granted.

Recent history is also full of surprises. Sao Paulo 2008 saw Lewis Hamilton make a last-gasp pass to snatch the crown from Alonso’s present team-mate Felipe Massa, while Vettel overturned a 15-point final round lead to clinch the 2010 title from Alonso in Abu Dhabi.

Vettel, who is chasing three titles in a row, finished second in last year’s Brazilian round, having won the year before.

“Historically we've been very quick here, but we also know this is a place where a lot of things can happen, so we need to be sharp in the moment and see what we can get,” said Vettel.

“Weather-wise, it’s Sao Paulo. Probably for Saturday and Sunday there’s some rain, but you don’t know how much. Pirelli have the rain tyres, so I don’t think we have to be too concerned.”

Vettel, 25, added that he doesn’t fear a repeat of the 2010 Championship showdown, this time at his expense. “I think two years back we would have loved to have been in Fernando's position,” he said.

For Alonso, the title outcome is only partially in his own hands.

The Spaniard, 31, must finish on the podium. Alonso must then also hope he can sufficiently outscore Vettel to finally add to the back-to-back titles he won for Renault in 2005-2006.

“This is a sport and anything can happen until the chequered flag,” said Alonso. “We will try to do the best race we can, cross the line on the podium - which gives us more than 13 points - and see where Sebastian crosses the line.

“If we win the Championship we will be very happy, but we know we need some strange combination of results. If we don't win, we will congratulate him and try again next year.”

Alonso warned that there is unlikely to be a transformation in Ferrari’s qualifying fortunes this weekend, meaning he could start the race several rows behind Vettel.

“There's no magic part that you can put on the car in five days,” he said. “We were seventh in Abu Dhabi and ninth in Austin so around those positions would be normal, but hopefully we can do a better job.”

Ferrari helped Alonso move one place up on the US GP grid by deliberately incurring a gearbox penalty for team-mate Massa, due to start ahead of him. Alonso defended the tactic.

“I'm proud of my team, more than anything because they said the truth when we changed the gearbox,” he said. “Not many teams are able to say the truth when they make a strategic decision.”

As well as the title showdown, this weekend’s grand prix marks Michael Schumacher’s final race before retirement (for a second and final time) and also the last event for Lewis Hamilton at McLaren.

Hamilton will replace Schumacher at Mercedes next season.

Hamilton beats Vettel, Alonso forces title showdown

F1 News

Date: 19/November/2012

Sebastian Vettel’s Red Bull couldn’t contain a charging Lewis Hamilton in Sunday’s inaugural F1 Grand Prix at Austin, Texas.

The defeat also means Vettel will take a 13 rather than 20-point advantage over Fernando Alonso into next weekend’s Brazilian finale, after the Ferrari driver pulled off yet another miraculous Sunday recovery.

Vettel and Hamilton were in a class of their own throughout F1’s first US GP since 2007, the McLaren driver overtaking the reigning double champion at the end of the back straight on lap 42 of 56 after Vettel was held up by a backmarker.

An exasperated Vettel complained over the radio, then clung to Hamilton and was just 0.6s behind at the finish line to at least secure the Constructors’ Championship for Red Bull.

“It was a close fight with Lewis, he had one chance and he took it,” said Vettel. “I wasn't too happy to send that nice big invitation to Lewis when I was held up by Karthikeyan.

“I tried to defend, but Lewis had so much more speed with DRS that it didn't really matter what I was doing.

“After that I tried to stay with him and maybe pass him again, but he was as quick as I was and there wasn’t much between us.

“But all in all it was a great race and a great result to seal the Constructors’ Championship against Ferrari. The guys can be very proud of themselves.”

Alonso, a woeful ninth in qualifying, gained two places even before the race had begun.

Lotus driver Romain Grosjean was already carrying a five-place gearbox penalty. Ferrari then deliberately inflicted the same penalty on Alonso’s team-mate Felipe Massa, thus moving Alonso to seventh and the cleaner side of the slippery race track.

It seemed to work. Alonso was up to fourth by the end of lap one, then third after Vettel’s team-mate Mark Webber retired with yet another alternator problem.

Alonso kept the position to the end, finishing over 39-seconds from victory, but surrendering just three points to Vettel after yet another extraordinary damage limitation exercise.

The Spaniard has thus forced a final round title showdown at a Brazilian event famous for its unpredictable weather.

“Our championship stays alive maybe thanks to the first laps,” said Alonso, who hasn’t won in the last nine races.

“Today it was not possible to keep pace with the two guys in front, but it was enough to keep the other guys behind. This podium, after all the difficulties we went through this weekend, is like a victory for us.

“Losing three points maybe was in no-one’s thoughts after seeing the practice, so we are really happy again to have a very good Sunday.”

If Alonso wins in Sao Paolo, he will need Vettel to finish fifth or lower to lift his first Ferrari crown.

“We go to Brazil with the possibility of the World Championship,” said Alonso. “Only Sebastian is in a better position than us, but we should be proud of ourselves.

“We will try to enjoy the race and do our best, fighting the entire race and see what the outcome at the end is.”

But it will take a miracle for Alonso to stop Vettel, at least in terms of pure performance.

“I’m excited because the car seems to work very well, good enough to fight for a win,” said Vettel. “We've been very quick in Brazil the last couple of years so plenty to look forward to.

“On top of that, we increased our lead in the championship today so I think we are in the best possible position.”

Vettel takes US pole, Alonso in trouble

F1 News

Date: 18/November/2012

If Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso finish where they qualified for the US F1 Grand Prix, Vettel will comfortably win his third successive World Championship on Sunday.

The Red Bull driver continued his domination of the new Texas event, held at a challenging and slippery Circuit of the Americas, with a sixth pole position of the season.

By contrast, Ferrari’s Alonso has looked uncomfortable all weekend, could only manage ninth in qualifying and suffered a rare defeat by team-mate Felipe Massa.

“I’m very, very pleased with the result obviously,” said Vettel. “We started off on the right foot yesterday when first practice was very good for us.

 “Obviously the asphalt is brand new and it takes a while for the track to come in but it's also quite a lot fun to slide around a couple of corners and it just got better throughout.

“You see the lap times just getting quicker and quicker, so the circuit is ramping-up massively.

“Through qualifying I think we were very happy. In the last section I would have loved to go a little bit quicker. It was a little bit closer than I wanted with Lewis [Hamilton]. But overall, fantastic.

“Obviously, it’s very important here to start from the front. We start on the clean side so it should be a good race tomorrow.”

Alonso, who needs to prevent Vettel gaining 15 points or more on Sunday to take the title to the Brazilian finale, will move up one place  on the grid due to a penalty for Romain Grosjean - but that also puts the Spaniard on the dirty side of the track.

“We knew it would be a complicated weekend, but clearly today we were too slow and we will start from too far back,” said Alonso.

“But our aim remains unchanged and it’s still possible: on Sunday all sorts of things can happen. Reliability, strategy - it will be important to work out when is the best time to pit because here, the cold tyres can be slower by several seconds - and team work will be as usual important.

“We will push to the limit, as we have done since the start of the year.”

Alonso lapped slower in Q3 than he had in Q2, and was left 1.643s behind Vettel’s pole time.