Vettel wins final race of 2013, leads Red Bull to one two finish

Sebastian Vettel has won the final race of the 2013 Formula 1 season at Interlagos in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The race win secures the four-time World Champion his career high 13th win of the season and 9th consecutive win, taking the chequered flag ahead of his second placed teammate Mark Webber to give Red Bull Racing the one two finish. Fernando Alonso finished in third for Ferrari.

Sebastian Vettel, who won his fourth Formula 1 World Championship earlier this year in Abu Dhabi, finishing the season with a career high 397 World Championship points. Fernando Alonso’s third place finish in Brazil was enough to win him second place in the World Drivers’ Championship ahead of Mark Webber in third.

As the final race of the season got underway, it was Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg got off to a strong start, overtaking pole sitter Sebastian Vettel off the line and into the first corner, whilst Alonso held off the surging Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton just behind. Rosberg’s lead of the race was short lived though as Sebastian Vettel breezed by him on the pit straight to start lap two.

Just behind, Vettel’s teammate Mark Webber battled and eventually won the fight for fourth on the second lap, squeezing by Lewis Hamilton and allowing him to start the to hunt down Rosberg, who lost second place to Fernando Alonso on the fifth lap.

The first retirement of the afternoon came on just lap four when Romain Grosjean, who has had a breakout year in 2013 with Lotus F1, retired with a massive engine failure. Lotus made light of the situation as best as possible though, taking to twitter to thank Renault Sport Engines for the memorable send-off in the last race where V8 engines will be used.

As the excitement of the first few laps settled down, Sebastian Vettel did what he has done best all season thus far, and started to pull off into the distance. By lap 17, Vettel was once again leading the F1 pack by over ten seconds whilst teammate Mark Webber had passed Fernando Alonso for second, giving Red Bull a one two advantage in the early stages of the race.

The first round of pit stops came at lap 18 as very light rain started to fall in and around the track. Teams opted to remain on the slick compounds though as rainfall was nowhere near heavy enough to necessitate any wet or intermediate compounds.

Mark Webber’s first stop of the afternoon was slower than Red Bull are accustomed to, and the Australian in his final race in Formula 1 lost track position to Fernando Alonso once more whilst Sebastian Vettel, far enough in the lead, re-joined after his first stop on lap 25 in first place. This proved to be a minor problem to Webber though who, with the help of the DRS system, passed Fernando Alonso for second place once again just a lap later putting Red Bull back in a one two advantage.

On Lap 32 an excellent fight for position between Felipe Massa and Lewis Hamilton was spoiled by the FIA race stewards when Massa was handed a drive through penalty. Felipe Massa, who was racing in his final Formula 1 race for the Ferrari outfit before moving to William F1 team in 2014 was handed the penalty after crossing the white pit entry line whilst engaging in racing with Lewis Hamilton. Mercedes called off Lewis Hamilton’s chase of the Ferrari once the penalty was given as Lewis would naturally assume the position once the penalty was taken.

The second round of pit stops started on lap 46 when Jenson Button, Nico Rosberg, Sergio Perez and Pastor Maldonado all came in on the same lap. Jenson Button opted to take the medium comound whilst the other three took the harder compound.

The second round of stop seemed to trigger a flurry of new action as everything seems to happen all at once. Lewis Hamilton and Valterri Bottas came into contact with each other going into the first corner. The impact resulted in a retirement for Bottas and a rear right blowout for Hamilton. Hamilton would limp around the track to get back to the pits for a replacement tyre, but would re-join the race in eighth place. Hamilton, two laps later, was handed a drive through penalty for causing a collision.

Meanwhile in the pit lane, Red Bull was unprepared for Sebastian Vettel’s second stop. As the race leader stopped, the wrong tyres were waiting for him on the right side of the car and the mechanics had to scramble to get the right compound. As the stop clock ticked, Mark Webber also arrived for his stop resulted in a queue at the garage as the team finished work on Vettel’s car. Luckily for the team, the lead gaps were enough the Vettel would return the track placed first whilst Webber easily passed Alonso for the third time this race to re-take second.

Charles Pic and Caterham added themselves to the retirees list on lap 61 when a spin off track caused a rear suspension failure to Pic’s car. Pic would pull the car off to the side of the track, unable to return to the pits. A racing collision between Jean-Eric Vergne and Pastor Maldonado took place just a handful of laps later as the two battled for position going into the first corner. Both escaped without damage.

As the final race of the season drew to a close and the drivers’ crossed the finish line for the last time in 2013, an overwhelming sense of emotion was shown by the various drviers.

Mark Webber, who drove his last Formula 1 race of his career, removed his helmet to take everything in one last time on the slowdown lap whilst race winner Sebastian Vettel pleased the crowd with another set of doughnuts. On returning to the pits, Felipe Massa used his Ferrari one last time to celebrate his drive with his Brazilian home fan base with his own doughnuts in front of the home stand. The sites provided a spectacular end to the season.

At the lower end of the grid, Marussia and driver Max Chilton did what it took to finish the race and Constructors’ World Championship ahead of last placed Caterham F1 team. Whilst Red Bull Racing won the Constructors’ Championship three races ago in Abu Dhabi, Mercedes finished the year in second place ahead of Ferrari in third.

Lotus’ impressive season was enough to guarantee a fourth place Constructors’ finish ahead of Woking based outfit McLaren. Force India, Sauber, Toro Rosso and Williams made up places six through nine respectively.

The 2013 Formula 1 season is now complete. Teams now return to their home factories and headquarters in order to focus on completing their 2014 challengers which undertake enormous rule regulation changes. Formula 1 returns to the track in January 2014 as pre-season winter testing commences in Spain.