United States Grand Prix: where were the Stetsons?!

Sebastian Vettel is on top of the world, his dominance is unrivalled and his achievements are already historic. He broke yet another record today to become the first driver to win eight grands prix consecutively. The emotion was clear, up on the podium, and before that through Seb's team radio. There was an outpouring of praise and love from Vettel, broken up with sobs and tears. Sebastian looks utterly invincible as the season approaches its conclusion.

Mark Webber, on the other hand, had another frustrating race, in this his penultimate grand prix. He had yet another terrible start, finding himself slipping back behind Romain Grosjean and then Lewis Hamilton. He was later able to get past Hamilton but was unable to overtake Grosjean and gain the second step of the podium. The frustration was clear for all to see, in his face and his mannerisms. A combination of not making the most of qualifying, not being able to make more of his second position on the grid, and the fact that his season isn't proving to be a fairy tale send off, is obviously taking its toll on the Aussie.

The vast majority of the race was as dull as dishwater. There were very few passes and very little incident, the only real excitement coming on the first lap. Adrian Sutil was unaware of Pastor Maldonado moving up on his left hand side and moved over in to his path. As he clipped Pastor's front wheel he was spun around and was powerless to stop his Force India car from being wrecked against the barrier. The incident resulted in a safety car, but once the race got back underway all action went out of it. The DRS zones were relatively ineffective and drivers didn't seem to want to commit to anything risky or daring, at least not until the final few laps.

Any action there was, occurred in the middle of the pack and mainly between the Ferrari's and McLaren's. The final laps threatened to be extremely exciting, but it was all a bit of an anti-climax. In the final couple of laps Mark Webber lost touch with Romain Grosjean as the tyres on his Red Bull car went off, whilst Alonso passed Hulkenberg with a fantastic move, but Hulkenberg was unable to fight back again.

The biggest controversy of the weekend was the absence of Stetsons. I was looking forward to seeing those hats on the podium and without them the American Grand Prix was lacking. Hopefully next year we will see the return of the Stetson!

Race result:

1	Sebastian Vettel	1	Red Bull	1	1:39.856	1:39:17.148	25
2	Romain Grosjean	8	Lotus	3	1:40.445	+00:06.284	18
3	Mark Webber	2	Red Bull	2	1:40.591	+00:08.396	15
4	Lewis Hamilton	10	Mercedes	5	1:40.818	+00:27.358	12
5	Fernando Alonso	3	Ferrari	6	1:41.186	+00:29.592	10
6	Nico Hulkenberg	11	Sauber	4	1:40.952	+00:30.400	8
7	Sergio Perez	6	McLaren	7	1:41.830	+00:46.692	6
8	Valtteri Bottas	17	Williams	9	1:40.492	+00:54.509	4
9	Nico Rosberg	9	Mercedes	12	1:41.133	+00:59.141	2
10	Jenson Button	5	McLaren	15	1:41.285	+01:17.278	1
11	Daniel Ricciardo	19	Toro Rosso	10	1:42.119	+01:21.004	0
12	Jean-Eric Vergne	18	Toro Rosso	14	1:41.320	+01:24.574	0
13	Felipe Massa	4	Ferrari	13	1:41.209	+01:26.914	0
14	Esteban Gutierrez	12	Sauber	20	1:41.401	+01:31.707	0
15	Heikki Kovalainen	7	Lotus	8	1:41.028	+01:35.063	0
16	Paul Di Resta	14	Force India	11	1:41.148	+01:36.853	0
17	Pastor Maldonado	16	Williams	17	1:43.058	lapped	0
18	Jules Bianchi	22	Marussia	19	1:43.419	lapped	0
19	Giedo van der Garde	21	Caterham	18	1:43.933	lapped	0
20	Charles Pic	20	Caterham	22	1:43.968	lapped	0
21	Max Chilton	23	Marussia	21	1:43.775	lapped	0
22	Adrian Sutil	15	Force India	16	No time	retired, 0 laps	0

The Bucking Bronco!

Sebastian was attempting to tame a bull, whilst Fernando had a stallion to bring under control, on the slippery circuit in Austin, Texas. Thankfully, Formula One's return to stateside was a successful one. However, pre-race antics from the Ferrari camp threatened to put the sport in to disrepute again. Fortunately, their underhand tactics didn't affect the race too severely, but neutrals will have found the manipulation of the grid lineup a bitter pill to swallow.

Simply put, Ferrari were faced with the disadvantage of having both their drivers, Massa and Alonso, starting from the dirty side of the grid, in sixth and eighth respectively. To remedy this unfavourable circumstance, the Ferrari engineers intentionally damaged Filipe's gearbox, resulting in the need to replace it and thus incurring a five place penalty. This put Fernando up one place, in to seventh, and on to the clean side of the grid. It didn't break any rules, aided in Alonso getting in to fourth place after the first corner, but will be considered unsportsmanlike by many and may be seen as a stain on Alonso's championship if he can go on to win it in Brazil.

The race wasn't the most exciting of the season, but on the first couple of laps there were a few surprises thrown up. First of all the lack of experience on the circuit led to the drivers taking numerous different lines, and continuously weaving and passing each other. It was more like Karting than Formula One and at times the position changes became difficult to follow. The majority of the action was in the middle of the field, with the Lotuses, Williams', Toro Rossos and Jenson Button, battling it out as though they had nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Hamilton was the star of the day. He passed Mark Webber very early on and proceeded to chase down the usually unbeatable Sebastian Vettel. Lewis continued to push, until he got within a second of Vettel and then he breezed past on the DRS back straight. There was a moment when Sebastian attempted, tenuously, to accuse Hamilton of getting too close in his overtaking manoeuvre, however it was clear that it was Vettel who had moved back across the circuit towards Lewis, and Seb's remonstrances came to nothing.

Hamilton took the victory with a skilled and tenacious performance, with Vettel still managing to take the fastest lap record. Alonso claimed the third and final podium position after Webber suffered with his first technical failure since the Canadian Grand Prix in 2009. The result means that the Driver's Championship will be decided in the final race of the season in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Red Bull Racing have made it a hat trick of Constructor's titles and will be looking to add the Driver's Championship to the trophy cabinet as well. Overall, the American Grand Prix was a great success and the stetsons on the podium were a nice touch too.