WEBBER AT LAST IN BRAZIL

The passionate Paulistas played host to the last round of the 2011 Formula One World Championship today. Sao Paulo, Brazil, is a city of contrasts, with the rich living in opulence overlooking the ramshackled, poverty ridden favelas. When F1 comes to town, the contrasts are marked, but the intense love the Brazilian people have for Formula One is reciprocated by the sport, transcending the distance between their respective worlds.

Vettel took pole for the race again, his fifteenth of the season (another record). Webber lined up alongside his team mate with the two McLarens just behind them. As the lights went out, Alonso had a blinding start from the third row, jumping ahead of Hamilton’s McLaren. Vettel meanwhile made a great start while Webber fended off Button at the first corner. Vettel leapt straight into a two second lead over the first two laps. Barrichello, in possibly his last appearance in F1, plummeted down the order following a strong qualifying from twelfth place to nineteenth at the end of the first lap.

Of the leading five, the man who looked most likely to shake things up was Alonso – once again having stronger pace in the race than he had in qualifying. By lap eight, Vettel was over three seconds in front of Webber, who was in turn, a further three seconds ahead of Button.

The first real piece of drama came on lap ten when Schumacher and Senna (nostalgic moment there) had a coming together as Schumacher tried to make a pass into the first turn, the resulting contact earning Senna a drive-through penalty. Alonso then added some more drama when he passed Button around the outside of the high speed Ferradura right hander. Button was struggling with the soft compound tyres and Hamilton was clearly up for another battle with his team mate as he closed onto the back of him.

Then came the news that 23 drivers had been hoping for – Vettel was informed over the radio that he had a gearbox issue. Webber duly began to close up on the back of his team mate, albeit by a mere three tenths of a second per lap. Button was the first of the leaders to pit and Alonso and Hamilton pitted the next lap round to cover off Button’s new tyres. Vettel was next in followed by Webber a lap or so later. All of this left Massa in the lead, until Vettel decided he didn’t like being in second and breezed pass the Brazilian with the help of DRS into turn four. Not too bad for an ailing car.

Vettel’s issues came to the fore on lap 30 when Vettel allowed Webber through into the lead. Meanwhile, Button was coming under increasing pressure from his team mate who had closed to less than a second behind. Button made his second stop on lap 32 and rejoined in sixth place on the harder tyres. Hamilton was in on the next lap and left the pits with another set of the soft tyres, running a different strategy to his team mate. Hamilton then became the second leading driver to find out that he had a gearbox issue, just as he watched his team mate overtake Massa for fourth place.

This left Hamilton and Massa squabbling over the same piece of tarmac yet again. There was a building sense of deja vu until McLaren decided to save some of their spare parts for the winter and brought Hamilton in for the hard tyres. Ferrari decided to head off McLaren’s tactical shift and pitted Massa the next lap round, allowing him to rejoin just ahead of Hamilton. The undoubted crash was prevented when Hamilton’s gearbox ran out of cogs on lap 48. A sorry end to a disappointing season for him.

Things weren’t so glum on the other side of the McLaren garage after Button pitted for new tyres on lap 54 and suddenly came alive, pumping in fastest lap after fastest lap as he hunted down Alonso. He closed the gap from six seconds to less than a second in five laps and took the final podium spot from Alonso on lap 62 in a move that lasted about four corners, starting at turn one and finishing around the outside of Alonso in turn four. For a while it looked like Button had the speed to challenge Vettel for second, but there were too few laps left for him to pull that one off.

So, one of the best seasons in history has come to a close, Webber finally took a win in the best car, Vettel’s seemingly bullet-proof luck started to run out at the end of the year and the rest of the field ended the year as they started it – trying to catch the rampaging Red Bulls. With over half the drivers on the grid at the last race still not confirmed with drives for next season, a winter of uncertainty is beckoning for many in the sport. Not for Vettel though – the man to beat in the car to beat looks set for a very comfy winter indeed. Great driver, great team, great season. March 2012 can’t come around fast enough.