Brazilian Grand Prix

Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber dominated the penultimate race of the season at Interlagos to assure Red Bull racing of the F1 Constructors’ Championship. But more importantly what the result meant is that both the drivers are still in with a chance to win the Drivers Championship. Fernando Alonso finished third to remain the favourite to win the title while Lewis Hamilton’s 4^th place all but ended his Championship hopes.

Nico Hulkenberg, surprisingly starting on his first pole position, found the Red Bulls too hot to handle and relinquished his lead to Vettel in the first corner of the race. Three corners later, he found himself in third place as his Williams was no match to the pace of Webber’s Red Bull. It however took 7 laps for Alonso to get past Hulkenberg and by this time the Red Bulls were already out of sight. The McLarens of Hamilton and Button could get past the young Hulkenberg only when the German pitted for tyres.

Vettel and Webber never relinquished their positions except when they took their routine pit-stop. With 24 laps to go, Alonso found a glimmer of hope to make up on lost ground when Force India’s Vitantonio Liuzzi rammed into the barriers calling for the deployment of the safety car. But all his hopes were dashed as he found himself behind 7 backmarkers separating him from Mark Webber’s Red Bull.

After 1 hour and 33 minutes of near perfect driving, Vettel crossed the chequered flag 4.2 seconds ahead of teammate Webber and 6.7 seconds ahead of Alonso. Hamilton finished 4^th and Button’s 5^th place meant that he no longer was a contender for the Championship.

The results kept Alonso, who has 246 points, in the driver’s seat to win the title with an 8 point lead over Webber and a 15 point lead over Vettel. Lewis Hamilton, who is 22 points adrift, is mathematically still in with a chance but he needs a miraculous set of results to win his second Championship.

With 4 drivers in with a shot at the title for the first time, the F1 World Championship couldn’t have asked for a better Grand Finale going into the last race of the calendar at Abu Dhabi.

Tags: Brazilian Grand Prix, F1, F1 Constructors’ Championship, Fernando Alonso, Formula One, Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton, Mark Webber, Racing, Red Bull, Sebastian Vettel