2013 Formula One season finale at Sao Paulo, Brazil: two Bulls and a Prancing Horse

After nine months and 19 races across the globe, the 2013 season now comes to an end in Brazil. With the championship already decided a few races ago, the focus now shifts to two drivers, both racing for the most successful team in recent years, Red Bull Racing. Sebastian Vettel is standing on the cusp of greatness with all the records he has decided to claim, and Aussie Mark Webber, who is in his final race in F1. (Well, he can always un-retire. More than a few drivers have come back after a hiatus).

Vettel was once again on pole, while Mark was fourth, slotted behind Rosberg and Alonso. Vettel was looking at tying the record set by Michael Schumacher for most wins in an Formula One season, and also the consecutive wins record held by the legendary Alberto Ascari.

As they went racing, Vettel took a wide line towards turn 1. Rosberg took the opportunity to grab the lead from the RB9. Alonso had a fantastic start and claimed third ahead of Hamilton and Webber. Racing and dicing for position, the leaders kept swapping places, no one wanting to end on a low note. But by the third lap, Vettel once again put his stamp on the race. He was slowly but surely moving away from the rest of the field. Lotus driver Romain Grosjean, coming off from his best finish of the season, a podium in Austin last weekend, had a massive engine failure on lap 4, literally ending his season with a bang!

As the smoke settled, Vettel was knocking down fast lap times, even extending his lead to 6.102 seconds from the nearest competitor in lap 7. He was on a mission to annihilate the opposition, and did this convincingly.

Tires and the weather came into play around lap 13. Most of the front-runners made their pit stops and weighed their tire options, should the forecasted rain fall mid-race. Fortunately, it only came as a drizzle and wet weather tires were not used for the duration of the grand prix.

Lap 30 saw Felipe Massa in his Ferrari given a drive through penalty for having all four wheels inside the white pit entry line as he continued up the pit straight. The hometown hero was visibly pissed at the ruling, and took his anger out on the stewards as he drove past with hand gestures that could well be used in an R18 movie. He dropped three spots in the process of serving his penalty to come out in eighth position, with nearly half of the race still to be run. The stewards also sent word to the teams to instruct their drivers to avoid the white pit entry lines, as they will not be given a warning. Drive throughs will be handed out to the next offending driver.

Lap 41 saw a slight shower at turn 1 and this caught a few drivers out, overshooting the corner and missing braking points. Two laps later Valteri Bottas in his WilliamsF1 car made contact with Lewis Hamilton in his Mercedes. Bottas had a massive shunt due to his tire failure while Lewis had a slow puncture in his left rear tire. The stewards gave Hamilton a drive through penalty for causing a collision. Video replays showed that Lewis did move over to cover the racing line and in doing so made contact with Bottas.

Four laps later, Adrian Sutil in his Force India was seen unlapping himself from race leader Sebastian Vettel. Pundits were quick to react that something must be wrong with Vettel’s car. But as the race progressed, it was apparent that Sebastian was just dialing down and didn’t encounter a problem all throughout, much to the dismay of anti-Vettel fans.

Charles Pic on his Caterham broke the rear suspension on his car with 10 laps to go in the race. This was devastating to the team as they were relegated to 11th in the standings.

Lap 71 saw Sebastian claim his 13th win of the 2013 season, with Webber coming in second and Alonso claiming the last step on the podium. The fairy tale win of Webber in his last race didn’t materialize, but in typical Mark fashion, he was visibly pleased at finishing his career with the Red Bull Team.

As the party in Brazil winds down, all teams now move on and get things ready for the 2014 season opener in Melbourne in a few months time. Will Red Bull maintain their dominance? Will Ferrari, with the strongest driver combo, be the team to beat? Will Mercedes have an answer to their rivals’ speed and reliability? Or will we see a dark horse emerge and blow everyone off the track? We can hardly wait to find out!