GP report: a waste of a beautiful track

That Texan sun still has some power even by mid-November and so when finally it appeared on race day, and the track temperature rose as high as 37C, having at times during practice hovered below 20, it threw all those finely-honed engineering calculations askew.

No one had hard data and instead of being able to comfortably do a flat-out one-stop race, the teams instead went into the afternoon emphasising to their drivers they would keep them advised - after having paid very close attention to the tyre temperature monitors.

Sure enough, rear tyre heat degradation became the limiting factor - defining pretty much everyone's race as a cagey push/pull yin and yang affair. It was neither a flat-out contest - like Austin 2012 or Nurburgring, Hungaroring, Monza this year - nor a carefully pre-calculated 'drive to a delta' race we normally see otherwise.

Everyone was reacting rather than planning, being very careful to stay on the favoured one-stop strategy. You wanted your tyres in good shape at the end of each stint, so you could attack or defend. So you needed to conserve for big stretches of the race - but how close did you dare let the guy chasing you get, risking the loss of track position? It wasn't straightforward.

In the meantime the fans who had flocked to the place were subjected to long stretches of the race where drivers were just circulating, not daring to get the cars out of shape, leaving lots of margin everywhere, just driving to the numbers. The numbers from the rear tyres determined the laptime numbers. It was a waste of a beautiful track and a breathtaking collection of cars and drivers. This format of racing is not doing the sport justice.

Vettel's eighth win in a row was a new single-season record © LAT

Sebastian Vettel extended his consecutive race-winning streak to eight, regardless. Once he'd secured pole the day before, it never looked in doubt that he would. Sure, there was a bit of a scare when Red Bull found some debris in the transmission after parc ferme - obliging it to fit a new upright/driveshaft assembly. But the RB9's raw pace advantage was among the biggest it had enjoyed all season; it was just a question of how best to utilise it.

The unique geometry of the first turn here, a hairpin with a hugely wide approach, means that the outside line is invariably favoured. So Vettel's only real threat - his team-mate Mark Webber - was seriously disadvantaged by the error he'd made on the penultimate corner of his qualifying lap. That had handed pole on a plate to Vettel - and ensured Webber, from the disadvantageous inside starting slot, was going to be struggling even to come out of that turn in second place.

That's exactly how it played out - once the dancing girls had done their show. Vettel's start was good enough to retain his position, Webber was mugged from the dirtier side, found himself pinched in to the inside, obliging him to lift slightly to avoid snagging Vettel - all of which lost him enough momentum to drop a place to Romain Grosjean's Lotus into the turn and Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes coming out of it. If it had been difficult to see a threat to Vettel before...

Following Vettel, Grosjean, Hamilton and Webber in the colourful pack snaking its way down the hill from that hairpin to the flat-out kink of Turn 2 ran Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber, Fernando Alonso's Ferrari, Valtteri Bottas's Williams and Paul di Resta's Force India, the latter two having passed Heikki Kovalainen who looked slightly race-rusty off the start, his reactions a little tardy. The Lotus was then shuffled back a couple more places at Turn 12, the tight left at the end of the long back straight, Heikki running wide and demoted to 12th by Daniel Ricciardo's Toro Rosso and Nico Rosberg's Mercedes.

A second or two later the safety car lights neutralised the race: through the right-handed kink of that back straight Adrian Sutil was running the Force India's tyre sidewalls right alongside those of Pastor Maldonado to his left. Adrian didn't seem to realise the Williams was still there as he began to ease across to the left and in an instant he was in the midst of a top-gear spin, arrested only by the metal barrier.

Sutil's crash meant four laps behind the safety car © XPB

Vettel took up where he left off as racing resumed at the end of the fourth lap and he pulled out almost 2s on Grosjean, adding a further few tenths each lap. The safety car laps had helped with everyone's tyre life, but still it was marginal and there wasn't much action as everyone settled into a tyre-conserving groove.

Even outside the top 10, everyone except Toro Rosso's Jean-Eric Vergne had started on the option (medium) tyre. It was faster and almost as durable as the prime (hard) but still those rear temperatures would soon be creeping up. Above a certain temperature threshold they lose a lot of grip, the structure simply unable to cope with the loads. Up and down the pitlane, engineers held their drivers on a leash.

Over the next few laps Vettel eased away from Grosjean who in turn pulled out a similar margin over Hamilton, with Webber itching to get past the slower Mercedes but unable to find a way; with the DRS activated the Red Bull was hard up against the rev limiter quite early down that back straight. No one was flat-out at this stage. There would be brief flat-out phases at crucial moments, allowing the gaps to ebb and flow but without really breaking the stalemate.

But with Grosjean leaving Hamilton well behind, the closely following Webber could not afford to simply sit and wait, and on the 13th lap he put a beautifully judged late-braking move on the Mercedes at the end of the second DRS zone into Turn 12, sweeping around Lewis's outside.

Hamilton gave chase briefly before being reminded over the radio that his rear temperatures were beginning to look bad and that he needed to back off once more to avoid the prospect of having to two-stop. So for a time Hamilton slipped back towards Hulkenberg and the closely following Perez, Alonso and Bottas.

"It was a question of looking after the tyres but staying just out of range of those behind," explained Lewis. "If Hulk did a lap that was a tenth faster I'd make sure my next one was two tenths faster, but you couldn't really do any more than that with what we had."

Kovalainen fell back at the start © LAT

He was at least faring better than team-mate Rosberg who was continually being thwarted by Ricciardo's defence of 10th place, with Kovalainen looking on from close quarters.

Heikki was first of the scheduled pitters, on lap 17, very early for a one-stop. It would ensure he undercut those immediately ahead of him but was relying heavily on him then being able to access the Lotus's easy tyre use to have his new set of hards do the remaining 39 laps.

With drivers going into the late stages of the opening stints, those still with their tyres in good shape were let off the leash - notably Alonso, who proceeded to hound Perez relentlessly for fifth place, with Hulkenberg's fourth tantalisingly just beyond. But passing around here is difficult and Sergio played the defensive game perfectly. Rosberg finally nailed a move on Ricciardo and set off after di Resta, who was finding the Force India to be harder on the tyres than usual and had lost touch with Bottas ahead of him, the Williams still tracking the Perez/Alonso dice closely.

McLaren brought Perez in at the end of lap 22, defending from any possible undercut attempt by Alonso. But Ferrari left its man out there, nervous of committing him to a long final stint. This worked to Fernando's advantage. As he remained out, rear tyres still just about hanging on, Perez was behind Esteban Gutierrez's Sauber (which had pitted under the safety car to get out of synch), the pair of them restricted to the pace of the long-running, prime-tyred Vergne.

Gutierrez scrabbled by the Toro Rosso into Turn 12 on the 25th lap and Perez did the same a lap later. On that cue, Ferrari brought in Alonso. As the Ferrari accelerated out of the pitlane, Perez was bearing down the pit straight at a vastly higher speed, but behind. Alonso scrabbled ahead - just - before they arrived at Turn 1.

Sauber responded to Alonso's stop by bringing in Hulkenberg next lap, Nico maintaining position over the Ferrari thanks to his earlier 3s cushion, but still behind Hamilton, who had stopped on lap 25. Twenty-five seconds before Hulk's stop, race leader Vettel had pitted from an 8s lead, fully in command and unleashing only as much as he needed from the car.

Vettel controlled his pace, the tyres and his lead © XPB

"I could feel even as I drove to the grid that the car felt better than it had in qualifying and was feeling similar to how it had been on Friday. It was about pacing yourself to the range of the tyres and you're very busy with that and so it's a nice feeling to see you are pulling out the gap even so. It means you can take it a bit easier in some crucial places to look after the tyres and benefit from that later in the stint."

He had, in fact, taken a little more out of this first set than was ideal.

"Yes, the last couple of laps on the softs I was struggling because when I was running into traffic, the tyres were [cooling] off so we were actually the first to come in this time, despite the big gap."

"They just had too much speed for us, basically," said Grosjean, who pitted on lap 29, one after Webber's record pitstop, timed by the team at 1.95s to change the wheels. "They have a phenomenal car."

Webber then began chasing him down, the Red Bull's advantage over the Lotus having increased by a couple of tenths now that both had switched to the harder tyre. After the stops Mark was 2.2s adrift of Romain but closing fast. Four laps later he was less than a second behind and it seemed inevitable that a move was coming. But no sooner had Webber arrived on the Lotus's tail than he dropped over 1s off his earlier pace. Was there a problem?

Webber closed in on Grosjean © LAT

"No, just the tyre temps getting too high," related Webber. "Romain drove a very good race. He was very strong in the last part of the first sector - which is where you need to be close [for the DRS detection point] and to get out of there close behind him onto the straight. It's super-super difficult to stay close there. I did what I could for most of the time but also the tyres are screaming at you for lap after lap and you have to drop back, give them a breather, then go again."

Grosjean knew where he had to be fast, and where he could afford to take it easier: "So long as he remained small in my mirrors into Turn 12, I knew I was OK, so I knew I had to be very fast through [Turns] 8/9."

He delivered perfectly yet again under big pressure. Vettel's lead meanwhile extended to over 10s.

The Grosjean/Webber battle was being conducted around 10s up the road from Hamilton, who still narrowly headed Hulkenberg, Alonso and Perez.

Bottas had exited his stop behind the out-of-sequence Gutierrez and so had dropped off the back of that battle and furthermore was having to conserve the tyres for even longer than most.

But when he was given permission to attack the Sauber, he responded. On the 35th lap he scrabbled ahead into Turn 12, but was in too deep, enabling Esteban to retake the place as they exited. But Bottas was close enough behind in the DRS detection point onto the pit straight to get a good run on him into Turn 1. Again, Gutierrez fought him off but Valtteri simply hung on around the outside as they went downhill through the flat-out Turn 2. For a moment the Sauber began to run out towards him but the Williams stayed absolutely on-line, its driver refusing to be intimidated.

Bottas held his own among the top teams © LAT

"I only got a couple of laps each stint in which I could push," explained Bottas, now up to eighth place, "so I had to do it then."

Gutierrez would pit, dropping down to the lower orders soon enough and Bottas's real challenge was now to stave off a challenge from Rosberg while looking after those tyres.

Rosberg had earlier passed the struggling Kovalainen who, a few laps after his stop, had suddenly lost what the team could see was 20 points of front downforce very suddenly. The understeer was severe and after a few laps Heikki was called in and the whole front wing assembly was replaced. It lost him what would probably have been a points finish. No obvious problem could be found with the wing and it's suspected it could have been tyre rubber in the slot gaps.

With 20 laps to go Alonso went into attack mode, slashing the gap to Hulkenberg's fifth place so that by the 40th lap he was right with it and looking for a way by.

The Ferrari was the fastest car on the track at this point, but with the proviso that the faster cars were not flat out. Alonso got a DRS run on the Sauber down the pit straight going into the 46th lap, went for the outside into Turn 1, holding Hulkenberg in tight and thereby forcing him out wide while Fernando got the Ferrari rotated beautifully, allowing him to switch sides and pass on the run down to Turn 2. It had been an impressive charge but there'd surely be a price to pay in tyre stress.

Hamilton was back on form © XPB

Hamilton noted that Alonso, and not Hulkenberg, was now in his mirrors. "I had to step it up for a few laps after that," Lewis explained. It was enough to force Alonso into accepting his charge had taken him as far as he could get. Soon the rear tyres began to wilt. Massa's had already done so, Felipe forced to switch to a two-stop on lap 38, dropping him out of his battle with Ricciardo and Button.

Up front, Vettel reeled off the laps, engineer Rocky constantly reminded him not to take too much from the tyres. But he wasn't. The continuous stream of fastest laps alarmed the team - but they were merely the fastest of a field that was conserving its tyres. He was metering out the Red Bull's performance quite sparingly, the gap over Grosjean significant but not big.

Webber's challenge on the Lotus was fading along with Mark's tyres in the last couple of laps. Bottas was flying now he'd been allowed to let rip to keep him out of reach of Rosberg and meanwhile Hulkenberg was coming back at Alonso, the Ferrari's rear end squirming and sliding as Fernando tried to get the power down. Into the last lap the Sauber came screaming down the inside into Turn 1. Alonso saw him coming, stayed out wide going in, then simply repassed him on the exit. Hanging onto fifth place had to count as a very good result with the Ferrari in its current state - and it sealed Alonso second place in the championship.

Perez dropped off the back of the Alonso/Hulkenberg battle in the last few laps but remained out of range of Bottas. Behind Rosberg for the final point was Jenson Button, the McLaren having squeezed past the strategy-bust di Resta and Ricciardo in the closing stages.

Vettel's victory gave him yet another record in the sport's history broken - the biggest consecutive win streak within a season. Despite this huge accomplishment, he was still deeply impressed that he was being interviewed by Mario Andretti.

"You're a legend," he said to the 1978 world champion. And in time, so Seb will be too.