F1 Top 10 - The Ten Most Memorable Races of Sebastian Vettel Ever since Michael Schumacher retired last season, his protégé and close friend Sebastian Vettel has taken on the mantle of being Mister Formula 1. To commemorate the triple world champion’s birthday which is today (the German turns 26), we look back at his most memorable Formula 1 races. 2008 Italian Grand Prix The race on Monza in 2008 brought about the first Formula 1 win of the young German. He had managed to snatch the pole after a rain-soaked qualifying in which the championship leaders Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa struggled. Vettel, however, was joined on the front row by Heikki Kovalainen, who was driving for the frontrunners McLaren at the time. Kovalainen was widely expected to win the race as Vettel’s STR was hardly the fastest car on the grid. The German, however, managed to pull a two-second lead from the McLaren merely one lap into the very wet Italian Grand Prix. Vettel finished the race 12.5 seconds ahead of the Finn and a new Formula 1 star was born. 2009 Chinese Grand Prix Vettel’s win and pole with Scuderia Toro Rosso assured that when David Coulthard retired at the end of the 2008 Formula 1 season, the German would be the one to get the seat in Red Bull Racing alongside Mark Webber. Massive regulation changes between the two seasons made sure that in 2009 Ferrari and McLaren were no longer the frontrunners. Brawn GP and Jenson Button were dominating in the early part of the season, but in China Vettel managed to record the first victory in the history of RBR. The German started this race on pole too - another first for his Milton Keynes based outfit. The Chinese Grand Prix marked another win in the wet for Vettel, putting him in contention for the Regenmeister title alongside Britain’s Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton. 2010 Turkish Grand Prix In 2009, Brawn GP’s early-season dominance was so considerable that any chance Vettel had at winning the title that year was purely theoretical. The 2010 season, however, was something different. Adrian Newey’s RB6 was the best car on the track, despite its questionable reliability. The Turkish Grand Prix was the seventh race of the season with Vettel and Webber taking three poles each in the preceding weekends. Webber had won the two previous Grand Prix (in Spain and Monaco) and was back on pole in Turkey. The German was probably getting a bit frustrated with the necessity to play second fiddle to his more experienced teammate. Forty laps into the race, Webber was running first, while Vettel was getting impatient at P2 and attempted a pass at turn 12. Vettel’s maneuver was clumsy and the two Red Bull teammates collided. Vettel’s race ended then and there, while Webber was forced to pit and conceded the lead to Lewis Hamilton. This incident saw the beginning of a feud between the two RBR drivers that is still going on. 2010 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix The 2010 Formula 1 season saw numerous changes at the top of the driver standings. Right until the last race in Abu Dhabi four different drivers had the chance to win the world championship: Mark Webber, Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel. The German was the only one of the quartet that had not found himself at the top of the charts at any point before the season finale in Abu Dhabi. Vettel had seven poles and five race wins but between RB6’s lack of reliability and the German’s own mistakes throughout the season the youngster was frequently bested by not only his teammate Webber, but also Alonso and Hamilton. Alonso entered the final race of the season as the championship leader with an eight-point lead over Webber and 15 points ahead of Vettel. The German, however, did everything in his powers to win – he took the pole and then drove faultlessly. Strategy errors assured that Webber and Alonso got less than ten points from that race and at the fragile age of 23 years and 134 days Sebastian Vettel became the youngest world champion in the history of the sport. 2011 Canadian Grand Prix The 2011 Formula 1 season was a completely different story. The German won five of the first six races after qualifying at P1 at all but one of those five races. The Canadian Grand Prix, however, would turn out to be a different story. Vettel looked set to take yet another pole-to-flag victory on Circuit Gilles-Villenueve when the rain came. The race was suspended for two hours and when it was restarted, it was no longer Vettel’s race. The stage was set for Jenson Button. The British driver passed Mark Webber and Michael Schumacher on lap 65 to gain second place and went on to chase Vettel for the remainder of the race. At the final lap Vettel was leading by 0.9 seconds and it seemed unlikely that Button would be able to pass. Well, at least until the German ran wide at turn six. Button won the best race of his career and Vettel was reminded that he needs to stay focused for the whole duration of a race. 2011 Italian Grand Prix Sebastian Vettel is not known for his strength at the European leg of the Formula 1 seasons. In Japan and India, the German is always the man to beat, but the same does not hold for his home continent. In 2011, despite his utter dominance, he failed to win his home Grand Prix in Germany and the races in Great Britain and Hungary. Some spectators were probably beginning to doubt Vettel’s race craft on the classic tracks. The German was also accused of not being a proper racer as time and time again he had managed to win from P1 that year. The race on Monza went in the face of such claims. Vettel did start from the pole but he certainly did not have it easy – Fernando Alonso made a great start and launched himself into the lead at the first corner. Vettel was forced to follow the Spaniard closely until lap five when he attempted a brave move at Curva Grande. Alonso conceded and Vettel proved to himself and some doubters that he could actually pass cleanly. 2012 Belgian Grand Prix And if Monza 2011 suggested that Vettel was still a racer rather than a pole-to-flag victory machine, the 2012 Belgian Grand Prix proved it beyond doubt. The German had a very poor qualifying and found himself stuck at P10 after Paul di Resta bested him at the end of Q2 on Spa and then teammate Mark Webber suffered a five-place gearbox change penalty. Vettel made a handful of passes at the Bus Stop chicane and found himself fighting with his childhood hero Michael Schumacher for a P2 just twenty laps after the start of the race. The two drivers provided a great demonstration of clean wheel-to-wheel racing before the seven-time world champion dove into the pits at the end of lap 20. Vettel who was told by his strategists to do “the opposite” (i.e. stay out if Schumacher was pitting or pit if Schumacher was staying out) demonstrated perfect car control to make a left turn and stay on the track, despite being on the right side of Schumacher’s Mercedes when they entered the corner. The moment was interesting considering that two other drivers had managed to make carnage at the start of the same race by being too eager in close fight. Vettel’s recovery from P10 to P2 allowed the German to stay in the title fight. 2012 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix If Belgium was a “bus stop” on Vettel’s road to redemption as a racer, Abu Dhabi was simply a demonstration of how determined Sebastian Vettel is. The German had a horrible qualifying in that race. He was forced to park his car at the side of the track after he last qualifying lap and the stewards declared that the fuel that remained in his car at the time was not sufficient to take the regulation-mandated sample. As a result Vettel was disqualified from qualifying and sent to the back of the grid. Red Bull Racing, however, elected to take the car out of parc farme and do some changes to make it more overtaking-friendly. Vettel started from the pits and made 17 overtaking moves on the road to finishing at P3. After the Grand Prix, even Red Bull Racing’s Team Principal Christian Horner admitted that he had expected a finish at the bottom end of top 10 from the German, while Vettel was the only one that believed that a podium finish was possible. 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix The recovery drive at Abu Dhabi made sure that Vettel did not lose much of his lead at the standings from Fernando Alonso who finished at P2 between the race winner Raikkonen and Vettel. The German went into the final race of the season in Brazil with a 13-point lead from the Spaniard. It all seemed to be going well for the German (even if the McLaren car was certainly the fastest that weekend) until the start of the race. Vettel lost positions and found himself colliding with Bruno Senna in Turn 4. The German somehow managed to stay in the race, even if he had sustained some damage and was once again staring at the back of the field. Vettel’s damaged RB8 was the slowest car at the straights when it was dry, but the German managed to use two wet spells to make 23 overtakes and somehow finish at P6, despite his radio breaking down at the last third of the race. The sixth place had the value of a third world title as Fernando Alonso only finished second and could not close the whole 13-point gap. 2013 Malaysian Grand Prix The 2010 Turkish Grand Prix discussed earlier had the effect of Sebastian Vettel being painted as the villain of F1, a spoilt child that could not live in the shadow of his teammate. The 2013 Malaysian Grand Prix provided a bit more support for those claims. Vettel started the race on pole but a strategy mistake pushed him down to P2, while Webber was similarly to Turkey 2010 leading the race. The cars were side by side when Webber came out of the pits from his fourth and last pit stop in Lap 44. Vettel had pitted earlier and was running on mediums, while Webber had opted for the hards for the end of the race. Both drivers were notified by the Red Bull pit wall that they should turn down their engines (as the Mercedes cars were quite far behind) and hold station until the end of the race. Vettel was given the Multi 21 order which means “Car 2 (Webber) in front of Car 1 (Vettel)” but chose to disobey it. Webber turned down his engine, Vettel allegedly did not and in lap 46 after two laps of very close fight the German emerged as the race leader and quickly gained an advantage over the Australian who had trusted his team to enforce the Multi 21 order. Vettel went on to win the race and assume the “resident villain” role in Formula 1.
Posted on: Thu, 04 Jul 2013 12:14:57 +0000
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