Vettel won again but the race was still interesting in many ways. The most interesting things for me were Räikkönen's replacement Heikki Kovalainen and the young rookie Valtteri Bottas.
Williams has had one of the worst season of the teams history. Pastor Maldonado has scored only one point this season and now Bottas was 8th at the USGP. That was good news not only for Williams but for the young Finn as well. He really showed that he is able to overtake when the car has what it takes to compete.
Right at the start he overtook Kovalainen and then later Esteban Gutierrez in a high speed chase.
I was very impressed with Bottas! And yes I have said many times that he is a pro driver waiting for his chance.
Have also promised that I will stop talking about him until he actually does something. That didn't take long when I made that promise in Abu Dhabi two weeks ago.
Heikki Kovalainen was a big disappointment right from the start, but when I heard that the problems was because of his KERS, front wing/lack of down force and tire temperatures I understood that it wasn't his fault. I really thought at first that he is a bit rusty but don't think so anymore. His speed in the practice sessions and qualifying was very similar to Kimi Räikkönen so it can't be that bad.
Even Davide Valsecchi who at first said that Kovalainen was a bad choice changed his mind about him.
It takes a racing driver to see how good Kovalainen was performing. But all in all I was still very disappointed with his results. I really wanted to see him higher up fighting with the other top drivers.
Both of the Ferrari's were very slow. Even Alonso had problems keeping Nico Hulkenberg behind him but that is also because Hulkenberg is an awesome driver and not just the lack of Ferrari's speed.
Then I thought that I should mention the name of Romain Grosjean who drove almost like Räikkönen would have driven. It was probably a big relief for Team Lotus when they weren't sure if their two drivers could bring same kind of points home as Räikkönen usually does.
Mika Salo asked Eric Boullier before the race if Grosjean could fight for 2nd place. Boullier answered right away by saying "No, no, no. The Red Bulls will be first and second". It seems that the result was a bit better than even he could have expected. At least when we talk about Grosjean. In Kovalainen's case everything was wrong. Even the first "normal" pit stop was 2 seconds slower than Grosjeans. What was taking so long guys?
And like I always do at the end of the reviews - Here are the guesses from the preview and the actual results:
Pole position: Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull - CORRECT
Race:
- Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull - CORRECT
- Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - ONLY WRONG GUESS IN THE TOP3. LH WAS 4TH AND GROSJEAN WAS 2ND.
- Mark Webber, Red Bull - CORRECT
Fastest lap: Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull - CORRECT
Surprise: Heikki Kovalainen seems to be a mystery to many but I believe
that he will be higher up than Grosjean. This guy is better than many
may think. Keep an eye on him if you haven't already done that.
He has been good in the practice sessions so far and is performing stronger than his teammate.
He performed better in the long runs than Grosjean at the practice sessions but then after that everything started going downhill for the former Caterham pilot. I really hoped that he wouldn't retire from the race and he didn't but the problems that he had were almost the same thing.
The biggest surprise for me was the new speed found in the Williams cars. Unfortunately only Bottas could take advantage of the new setups. Maldonado was held up in the qualifying session by Max Chilton and Esteban Gutierrez. Maldonado's position was 18th when Bottas was 9th.
Maldonado had earlier even complained that Williams has been favoring Bottas and making his (Maldonado's) time there more difficult on purpose.
That is a stupid thing to say because Williams needs every point they can get. Valtteri Bottas said that he is going to fight for some more points next weekend at Interlagos. Let's hope that will happen.
Tomorrow I will post the 2013 Brazilian GP preview which is the last preview of the season.
