US GP review: Hamilton conquers America

PRACTICE

Practice one - Friday am

Friday morning at a new venue is always fascinating for everyone involved in Formula 1.

Would the Circuit of the Americas live up to its on-paper promise? Would Turn 1 enter F1 legend? Would anyone turn up?

The answers came fairly quickly. Drivers' views on the Austin layout ranged from positive to delighted, with the high speed sweeps of the first sector particularly pleasing. And the opening day crowd put many venues' Sunday attendance to shame.

Not everything met with universal approval. The consensus was that the thrill of Turn 1 was only really appreciated when walking up it, with many drivers underwhelmed and some finding it, frankly, rubbish. There was also an immediate concern about a potential dearth of passing places.

But the biggest talking point was the lack of grip. The combination of Pirelli's hard and medium selection proving too conservative, particularly in the low temperatures, and the extremely dusty surface meant no one could find any grip on day one.

Everyone was struggling with their cars' handling, but all agreed it was little to do with the cars themselves. Until the surface started generating any degree of grip, set-up changes would be pointless.

Ominously for the rest, one man seemed to be able to find grip where the rest could not. Sebastian Vettel blasted in a 1m38.125s lap to put himself quickest by 1.4s over Lewis Hamilton, who was a further 0.8s ahead of third-placed Fernando Alonso.

Full results from practice one

Practice two - Friday pm

When Vettel was parked in the Red Bull garage for nearly an hour in the afternoon as the team worked to fix a water leak, it looked unlikely that he would be repeating his practice one domination.

But as it turned out, even having less than half the track time of his rivals was no real problem for Vettel. He set the pace by 0.7s, usurping team-mate Mark Webber, and didn't think the loss of running had harmed his preparations in the slightest. It was hard to argue.

Alonso was encouraged to be within 0.008s of Webber at least, and ahead of the two McLarens.

Despite the width of most of the track, drivers were still managing to trip over each other. A brush between Jean-Eric Vergne and Heikki Kovalainen smashed a chunk from the Toro Rosso's front wing and sliced through the Caterham's left rear tyre.

At the very back, there was much debate over the reasons for HRT's lack of running. The team denied that its quiet day was anything to do with being put up for sale or rumoured parts shortages.

Full results from practice two

Practice three - Saturday am

As final practice drew to a close, the tyre temperature issue seemed even more acute - although with the rest of the weekend unlikely to be as chilly as this session, this was set to be as severe as the problem got.

McLaren's Hamilton and Jenson Button were first and second on hard tyres, but improving on that pace with mediums seemed very difficult for most, at least until they had done a lot of laps to wake the rubber up.

The exception, again, was Vettel. The Red Bull blasted in a time one second clear of the field, and it was a long while before Hamilton got to within 0.258s.

Pastor Maldonado showed encouraging form in third, followed by Alonso and Nico Rosberg.

The session also featured another tangle, this time Sergio Perez punting Charles Pic into a spin.

No penalties were issued in that instance, but Romain Grosjean would head into qualifying facing a grid drop as his Lotus required a gearbox change. All three of Formula 1's Frenchmen had issues, with Vergne parking with broken suspension.

Full results from practice three

QUALIFYING

1. Sebastian Vettel

"In the last section, I would have loved to go a little but quicker. I think I lost a little bit in the first and the last sector. It was a little bit closer than I wanted with Lewis, but overall fantastic."

2. Lewis Hamilton

"I did two consecutive quick-laps - and, on my second lap, having put in a 'banker', I didn't really have anything to lose, so I went almost over the limit, really on the edge, but the car still seemed to handle it well. On the final corner, I gained a little time on the entry but lost it on the exit. I got every corner perfect, I reckon, except for that last one."

3. Mark Webber

"I'm pretty happy with qualifying actually. It's a very tricky venue in terms of tyres, circuit conditions and all those type of things together. I was pretty happy with the last part of Q3."

4. Kimi Raikkonen

"I was actually expecting a more difficult qualifying session today, but the car was the best it's felt all weekend so it turned out to be quite good. The set-up is still not exactly how I want it but it's much closer."

5. Michael Schumacher

"Qualifying was better than we expected, especially as we have struggled over the weekend. I had a good lap in Q3 and everything felt right with the car so we were able to maximise the potential."

6. Felipe Massa

"With this type of tyre on this asphalt one struggles to get the tyres up to temperature and one has to lap continuously before being able to set a good time. In Q2, we managed it, but in Q3 things did not go as well: it's never easy to do the perfect lap with so little grip."

7. Nico Hulkenberg

"My lap in Q3 was not too bad, but I was a little compromised by a Williams in the last couple of corners, so maybe there was a little bit more to come."

8. Fernando Alonso

"We never managed to put together the best lap, which on these tyres and with these track conditions is always the last one you do. We knew it would be a complicated weekend but clearly today we were too slow and we will start from too far back."

9. Romain Grosjean - gearbox penalty

"The guys did an awesome job to change the gearbox between FP3 and qualifying - which was a really tight turnaround - but we're still in the top 10 even with the penalty so that's a good result. Apart from the gearbox problem, it's all gone very well today. "

10. Pastor Maldonado

"The performance wasn't there yesterday so today was much better for us. Unfortunately in Q3 the grip wasn't there, as it was difficult to get the tyres working correctly."

11. Bruno Senna

"Unfortunately I made a small mistake on my best lap in Q2, running a bit wide on Turn 19 and then having dirty tyres which cost me about half a second and a place in Q3 for sure."

12. Jenson Button

"It was such a pity to be put out of the running so early into the qualifying session. We had a throttle pedal problem - the engineers don't yet know exactly what caused it - but I suffered a loss of drive out on the circuit."

13. Paul di Resta

"It has been a difficult weekend so far and I'm still struggling to get the tyres working. I have quite a smooth driving style so maybe that's why I haven't been able to switch them on as well as Nico, who has a more aggressive approach."

14. Jean-Eric Vergne

"Maybe I could have got a bit more out of the car this afternoon, perhaps found a couple of tenths. After going over the kerbs and damaging the suspension this morning, I obviously lost some track time and without that, I might have had a better understanding of the tyres."

15. Sergio Perez

"We have lost a lot of performance compared to this morning's practice session and at the moment we don't really know why. The track temperature increased a lot, but for me the tyre warm up still wasn't any better. My car tended to oversteer quite a lot in qualifying."

16. Kamui Kobayashi

"Without doubt the result is disappointing for us because after free practice we were expecting a better qualifying. I found the warm up of the tyres easier this afternoon, but still I could not find the peak performance for the tyres. I just don't know yet why this was."

17. Nico Rosberg

"I ran our old exhaust system in qualifying today as part of our evaluation programme for next year. We had already used it yesterday and made the decision to continue for the rest of the weekend to help with the learning process. The difference to Michael's car surprised me this afternoon."

18. Daniel Ricciardo

"We knew it would take a long time for the tyres to come in, especially as the asphalt is still so slippery. We never really got them to work properly as I got stuck in traffic in the early part and then came the yellow flags when I was about to try for my last two laps."

19. Timo Glock

"I thought I had a strong lap and the tyres were really coming in, but towards the end I had a bit of wheel lift and the rear felt a bit strange. I think we could have gone quicker because the tyres were improving so much lap by lap, but because of the yellow flags there was no chance for more improvement."

20. Charles Pic

"It was a good qualifying session and the most important thing is that we got both our cars ahead of both Caterhams. I missed some important track time this morning because of the incident with Perez and we were not able to get a good feel for the car by the end of FP3. Overall, despite not having fully optimised our package, I am pleased."

21. Vitaly Petrov

"Quali obviously didn't go how we wanted it to. I had traffic issues on every lap and wasn't able to put a clean lap together, but even without that we've struggled with the tyres here all weekend and that showed today."

22. Heikki Kovalainen

"We underperformed today, it's really that simple. We went with a plan that didn't work and unfortunately both Vitaly and I weren't able to get enough heat into the tyres to get the best out of them, or manage the traffic well enough to get a clean lap in."

23. Pedro de la Rosa

"I knew that it would be a lot better than yesterday and this morning on my out lap. I could already feel the tyres switching on. We struggled with bringing them up to temperature all weekend and finally in qualifying we managed. Both because the temperature of the asphalt picked up and we improved the the balance of the car, but grip level is still pretty low."

24. Narain Karthikeyan

"I think we could still have improved on the last laps but the car suddenly stopped. We had a problem with the fuel pick up that we are now looking into it but we don't expect it to be a problem for tomorrow's race."

Starting grid

Pos Driver                Team
 1. Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault       
 2. Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes       
 3. Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault       
 4. Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault          
 5. Michael Schumacher    Mercedes               
 6. Nico Hulkenberg       Force India-Mercedes   
 7. Fernando Alonso       Ferrari                
 8. Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault *  
 9. Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault       
10. Bruno Senna           Williams-Renault       
11. Felipe Massa          Ferrari *
12. Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes       
13. Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes   
14. Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari     
15. Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari         
16. Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari         
17. Nico Rosberg          Mercedes               
18. Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari     
19. Timo Glock            Marussia-Cosworth      
20. Charles Pic           Marussia-Cosworth      
21. Vitaly Petrov         Caterham-Renault       
22. Heikki Kovalainen     Caterham-Renault       
23. Pedro de la Rosa      HRT-Cosworth           
24. Narain Karthikeyan    HRT-Cosworth

*  Five-place gearbox penalty     

Three things stood out as the victory stetsons were put away at the end of Formula 1's return to America.

One: Austin was a huge success. Two: McLaren is losing a driver in superb form in race winner Lewis Hamilton. Three: Fernando Alonso's relentless underdog title bid has a touch of magic about it.

Austin's triumphant debut was great news for F1. A massive and passionate crowd turned out at a track that both challenged the drivers (Jenson Button describing the first sector's sweeps as the best sequence on the calendar) and produced great overtaking in the end despite pre-race scepticism.

The fear that the first United States Grand Prix in five years would be a processional and predictable one-stop race made Ferrari's Saturday afternoon plight look all the more ominous.

Alonso had qualified only ninth, slower than his team-mate Felipe Massa, slower even than the Force India of Nico Hulkenberg.

Sebastian Vettel had put his Red Bull on pole. Not only that, he had been fastest in every practice session - often by overwhelming margins - and all parts of qualifying. And that was all despite losing nearly one third of the available Friday mileage to a water leak.

A Vettel victory looked certain. The fourth place Alonso needed just to scrape into Brazil with a distant sniff of the title looked like a ridiculous dream.

And despite the odds and logic seeming to suggest otherwise, Alonso remained resolute. The championship fight wasn't over. He would take points out of Vettel in America. Yes, that looked like a crazy hope, he acknowledged, and no, he had no reasonable argument why it was going to happen. It was just a feeling...

In the end, he didn't take points out of Vettel, but to only lose three still seemed like a miracle.

Some would say a touch of duplicity was key to that miracle. Alonso's ninth place on the grid instantly became eighth as Romain Grosjean had gone into qualifying with a gearbox change penalty hanging over him from a practice three failure. The Lotus man was fourth fastest, so his demotion gave Alonso one place.

But that was not a place he particularly wanted. No one fancied starting on the very dirty left hand side of the new track's grid, with Felipe Massa predicting that the difference in start grip would be the biggest ever seen in F1.

That proved a touch melodramatic, and it would be ironic if Massa's proclamations had convinced Ferrari of the dangers of starting of the left, as its solution was to break a gearbox seal on the Brazilian's car so he fell from sixth to 11th - and popped Alonso up to seventh.

Shifting to the preferential side of the grid wasn't the only factor in Alonso's great start, though. His getaway itself was enough to dismiss fifth-place starter Michael Schumacher, and wise use of the outside line through Turn 1 ensured he headed down the hill in fourth place. With Schumacher then turning out to be something of a mobile chicane - plunging to 14th before his (early) first pitstop - clearing the Mercedes was a useful box ticked for Alonso.

Vettel had unsurprisingly held the lead off the line, with his team-mate Mark Webber moving past Hamilton into second, so at this juncture Alonso's presence in fourth looked like it would prolong the title fight but not change the outcome.

The first sign of Red Bull vulnerability came as early as lap four, when Hamilton dived ahead of Webber at the end of the DRS zone. The McLaren was 2.6 seconds behind Vettel at this point, and that gap soon started coming down - not by enough, but sufficient amounts to keep Vettel on his toes.

Twelve laps later, and another hint that God, Fate or both was wearing a Ferrari cap in Texas. Webber's Red Bull pulled off and retired - with an alternator failure, the glitch that the champion team has dreaded most since its Valencia loss. Now Alonso was third, and Hamilton was within the DRS-friendly one second of Vettel's tail.

Then came a few laps of relief for Red Bull. First Hamilton's challenge faltered as he used up his medium tyres faster than Vettel. In no time at all, the lead margin was pushing three seconds again, and Hamilton had to pit relatively early, on lap 20. He also emerged behind the yet-to-stop Kimi Raikkonen, while Vettel beat the Lotus out of Turn 1 when he changed tyres a lap later.

Raikkonen's presence was also reassuring for Red Bull as the Abu Dhabi winner was hinting that he might be a problem for Alonso. The Finn had made a combative start to the race, quickly following Nico Hulkenberg past the wilting Schumacher. Romain Grosjean then passed both in one move, only to spin almost immediately afterwards and consequently have to pit for new tyres. His subsequent charge back from 22nd to seventh suggested an opportunity missed.

Hulkenberg was dispatched by Raikkonen with an epic around-the-outside move at Austin's most daunting section, and then the Lotus's pace towards the end of its long first stint suggested that it could pit and get out ahead of Alonso, particularly as a little wheel trouble meant the Ferrari's pitstop was a painful (in this era) six seconds.

But Raikkonen's stop was equally slow and he was less competitive on the hard tyre, ending up in a battle with the flying Massa that he would ultimately lose.

Jenson Button was the other man giving Alonso a headache. A terrible start (which he admitted was not all the dirty side of the grid's fault) dropped him from 12th to 16th, but his superb race pace and tyre kindness meant a dynamic recovery.

As Alonso struggled to bring his second set of tyres to life, Button was able to pace the Ferrari and take third on the road. Although he would have to stop still, the speed Button was finding on very old hards boded well with a short stint on mediums to go.

Ultimately Alonso managed to halt Button's escape once his tyres awoke, and despite delivering some stunning laptimes on his new mediums after dropping to seventh with his pitstop, Button would not get another chance to fight for the podium. By the time he had tigered a way past both Lotuses, fourth-placed Massa was out of reach and a vital buffer between the lead Ferrari and the second McLaren, which had to settle for a still excellent fifth.

So Alonso's third place was secure. Vettel's first position was less so.

Hamilton renewed his attack on the lead early in the second stint, with Raikkonen pitting and getting out of the way on lap 22.

There was little doubt that the McLaren was the faster package around Austin, but there wasn't much in it at all.

Every lap the pattern seemed the same: Hamilton would gain hugely on Vettel through sector one's sweeps, lose a little too much on traction out of the slow corner onto the DRS straight to have a proper shot at the Red Bull, catch up again by activating DRS but not get close enough, and then see Vettel edge away by a few tenths in the third sector.

It was a thrilling and intense contest - a pure head to head race between two of the greatest of their generation. But it was increasingly clear that Hamilton had to try something different or hope for a stroke of luck, as the Red Bull had just enough speed in the key places to keep it at bay.

What Hamilton needed, it turned out, was an HRT. As they started lap 42, they came across Narain Karthikeyan in the first sector. All weekend there had been suggestions that it would be hard for backmarkers to get out of the way adequately in the rapid snaking bends of sector one, and that's exactly where Karthikeyan was.

By the time the Indian was out of the way, Hamilton had reduced Vettel's lead by the crucial car lengths that would make a passing move on the back straight viable. This time when Hamilton hit the DRS button, he was able to fly past - swiftly choosing the outside when Vettel defended the inside. Such was the McLaren's momentum, it was easily ahead by the time they entered Turn 12.

It couldn't pull away, though. Vettel reacted to losing the lead with some radio venom on the topic of traffic, but was gently encouraged by the pitwall to focus on what he was supposed to be doing. He took heed and refused to let Hamilton escape.

He was never close enough to try a proper retaliation, though, and even a characteristic eleventh-hour push for the fastest lap couldn't give Vettel another shot. He crossed the line six tenths behind Hamilton, and although that still clinched the constructors' championship for Red Bull and allowed Vettel to add three points to his cushion over fellow podium-finisher Alonso, the celebrations were not ecstatic.

There's no need for Vettel to worry too much: he still has the fastest car and still has a 13-point lead with one race to go.

Alonso still needs a miracle. But you could say staying in contention to the final round in a car that looked like a midfielder at best in pre-season testing, has rarely, if ever, been the pacesetter this year, and which routinely qualifies three rows behind the points leader, is something of a miracle in itself. And that's Alonso's year so far. This title battle really should be a foregone conclusion by now, but it certainly isn't.

Lap-by-lap as it happened on AUTOSPORT Live

Race results

Pos  Driver        Team                       Time
 1.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes           1h35:55.269
 2.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault           +     0.675
 3.  Alonso        Ferrari                    +    39.229
 4.  Massa         Ferrari                    +    46.013
 5.  Button        McLaren-Mercedes           +    56.432
 6.  Raikkonen     Lotus-Renault              +  1:04.425
 7.  Grosjean      Lotus-Renault              +  1:10.313
 8.  Hulkenberg    Force India-Mercedes       +  1:13.792
 9.  Maldonado     Williams-Renault           +  1:14.525
10.  Senna         Williams-Renault           +  1:15.133
11.  Perez         Sauber-Ferrari             +  1:24.341
12.  Ricciardo     Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +  1:24.871
13.  Rosberg       Mercedes                   +  1:25.510
14.  Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari             +     1 lap
15.  Di Resta      Force India-Mercedes       +     1 lap
16.  Schumacher    Mercedes                   +     1 lap
17.  Petrov        Caterham-Renault           +     1 lap
18.  Kovalainen    Caterham-Renault           +     1 lap
19.  Glock         Marussia-Cosworth          +     1 lap
20.  Pic           Marussia-Cosworth          +    2 laps
21.  De la Rosa    HRT-Cosworth               +    2 laps
22.  Karthikeyan   HRT-Cosworth               +    2 laps

Retirements:

Driver        Team                       On lap
Webber        Red Bull-Renault             17
Vergne        Toro Rosso-Ferrari           15


World Championship standings, round 19:                

Drivers:                    Constructors:             
 1.  Vettel       273        1.  Red Bull-Renault          440
 2.  Alonso       260        2.  Ferrari                   367
 3.  Raikkonen    206        3.  McLaren-Mercedes          353
 4.  Hamilton     190        4.  Lotus-Renault             302
 5.  Webber       167        5.  Mercedes                  136
 6.  Button       163        6.  Sauber-Ferrari            124
 7.  Massa        107        7.  Force India-Mercedes       99
 8.  Grosjean      96        8.  Williams-Renault           76
 9.  Rosberg       93        9.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari         22
10.  Perez         66       
11.  Kobayashi     58       
12.  Hulkenberg    53       
13.  Di Resta      46       
14.  Maldonado     45       
15.  Schumacher    43       
16.  Senna         31       
17.  Vergne        12       
18.  Ricciardo     10       

TEAM BY TEAM

Red Bull

A third straight constructors' championship was easily clinched at Austin, and yet Red Bull won't remember this race with great delight.

Vettel's incredible practice and qualifying form made it look like he had the US victory sealed well in advance, Friday afternoon water leak notwithstanding.

Yet come the race he could not hold off Hamilton's McLaren, and finished only one place ahead of title rival Alonso, despite the Ferrari's qualifying disaster.

Worse still, Webber retired from third place (having passed Hamilton at the start but then swiftly been overtaken) with an alternator issue - fast becoming the team's most dreaded issue.

McLaren

All weekend Hamilton looked like he might be the one man who could worry Vettel. And on race day, he beat him.

Hamilton qualified just over a tenth shy of the lead Red Bull in second. He was jumped off the line by Webber, but by lap four was ahead of the Australian again and edging towards Vettel.

Tyre wear near the end of his first stint slowed Hamilton's charge, but he was all over the Red Bull once more by the halfway point, and pounced when Vettel lost some momentum in traffic on lap 42. Once around, Hamilton kept Vettel's counter-attack at bay and made certain of victory.

Button adored the circuit's quick 'Becketts' section but predicted a lack of overtaking. He proved himself wrong, which was just as well given that a throttle problem meant he only qualified 12th and a poor start then dropped him to 16th.

Running long on hard tyres in stint one and overtaking a lot of cars along the way then meant Button reached third for a while. He rejoined seventh when he finally pitted, and fought past the Lotuses to secure fifth.

Ferrari

Ferrari suffered worst of all from the issues with tyre warm-up in qualifying, where Alonso was only ninth - two places behind Massa.

Grosjean's penalty elevated them both one spot, and then Ferrari controversially broke a gearbox seal on Massa's car to drop him five spots and bringing Alonso up to seventh and the clean side of the grid.

From there, Alonso shot up to fourth on lap one, and picked up third when Webber retired. He stayed there and will go to Brazil with a shot at the title.

Massa made excellent progress from his unfortunate grid slot. He finally emerged on top of a long dice with Raikkonen and secured fourth.

Mercedes

As a learning exercise for 2013, Mercedes reverted to an older car specification (minus Coanda effect exhaust) for Nico Rosberg, who duly qualified 17th, while team-mate Schumacher was sixth quickest in the latest model. Rosberg put a brave face on it and said it proved Mercedes' upgrades were, in fact, working...

There was no such comfort in the race. Schumacher suffered terribly with tyre problems, predicting a rogue set as rivals queued to pass him early on. He swiftly tumbled from fifth to 14th, and would ultimately have to switch to a two-stop strategy, leaving him 16th.

Rosberg ran one of the longest first stints of all, but it didn't achieve much for him. He finished 13th.

Lotus

Austin's lack of grip hindered Lotus a lot in practice, so for Grosjean and Raikkonen to qualify fourth and fifth was a pleasant surprise. Grosjean's happiness was tempered by a practice gearbox problem, though, and he would drop back to ninth, before Massa's shuffle gave him a place back.

Both men soon passed Schumacher in the race, with Grosjean then overtaking Hulkenberg and Raikkonen as they focused on each other.

Later that same lap, Grosjean spun, and had to make an early tyre stop soon after. He then made a great recovery to seventh, right behind Raikkonen. The Finn produced a superb pass on Hulkenberg, and later fell victim to an equally good one from Button. A slightly slow pitstop and a lack of pace on hard tyres meant sixth was ultimately Raikkonen's limit on a day when he seemed to be a podium contender for a while.

Force India

A strong weekend for Hulkenberg, and a frustrating one for Paul di Resta. The German qualified eighth, and gained two positions from Grosjean and Massa's penalties. Di Resta struggled to get the tyres working and was 13th.

Hulkenberg passed Schumacher for fifth early on, but his pace was at its best by far when on relatively new medium tyres. He later faded and had to settle for fending off the two Williams for eighth.

Di Resta was also quick in the opening laps and spent a while firmly in the top 10 before spinning and having to pit to get rid of flat-spotted tyres as a result. He finished 15th.

Sauber

Sauber's hopes of beating Mercedes to fifth in the constructors' championship look remote after an Austin weekend in which the Swiss cars were never near the pace.

Tyre issues were the key as Perez and Kobayashi qualified only 16th and 17th. Perez was also in trouble a few times, called up to the stewards for blocking in one practice session and colliding with Charles Pic in another.

Both Sauber men fared a little better in the race and got stuck in to some spectacular multi-car dices, but all the excitement couldn't get them higher than 11th (Perez, who also had some brake issues) and 14th (Kobayashi).

Toro Rosso

There were moments of promise for Toro Rosso at Austin, but ultimately no points.

Ricciardo was an unhappy 18th in qualifying, blaming tyre warm-up and yellow flags, while Vergne showed some of his best Saturday form to qualify 14th.

Much of Vergne's achievement was wasted by a poor first lap, though, and he was an early retirement with a suspension breakage - his second of the weekend following an initial drama in practice.

Ricciardo escaped a first-corner clash with Pic, then ran an extremely long first stint and showed great pace as he rose to fifth, battling with the likes of Raikkonen on pure speed. But once on medium tyres, he was less competitive and had to settle for 12th.

Williams

Pastor Maldonado made it into Q3 and took 10th on the grid, while Bruno Senna just missed joining him as he went 11th quickest.

Maldonado fell behind his team-mate and several other cars when he slewed off the road on the first lap. Both men had strong race pace and enjoyed very combative afternoons.

Going into the closing stages they were queued up behind Hulkenberg, with Maldonado forcing Senna aside but finding the Force India equally hard to pass. They finished ninth and 10th.

Caterham

Heikki Kovalainen's weekend got off to a dramatic start on Friday when a brush with Vergne gave him a puncture.

In qualifying both Kovalainen and Vitaly Petrov had huge trouble getting the tyres to work for a flying lap. The Russian beat his team-mate for once, but both Marussias beat them both.

A bullish Kovalainen then tweeted that he was certain of beating Marussia in the race, and he wasn't wrong. Both Petrov and Kovalainen were soon ahead of the red and black cars. Petrov stayed there to claim 17th, while Kovalainen had a longer battle with Glock, including late-race contact, on the way to 18th.

HRT

Amid news that the team was up for sale and rumours that it was short of parts, HRT took it quietly in practice - sitting out some track time and lapping well off the pace.

Both Pedro de la Rosa and Karthikeyan qualified though, despite a fuel pick-up problem stranding the latter.

They finished 21st and 22nd, after uneventful races punctuated only by Karthikeyan attracting the wrath of Vettel for holding him up at what turned out to be the pivotal moment of the lead battle.

Marussia

There was delight at Marussia when Timo Glock and Charles Pic comfortably outqualified the two Caterhams. It came just hours after the team was left enraged by Perez's clash with Pic in final practice.

In the race, both Marussias were soon overtaken by both Caterhams. Glock stayed in the fight and even tangled with Kovalainen later on, though he couldn't beat the Finn to 19th in the end.

Pic was further off the pace in 20th, due to damage from an early brush with Ricciardo.

RACE DATA

The Race in Action

Full race lap times (H)

Full race lap times (V)

Lap chart (positions)

Lap chart (gaps)