Track Torque: Sao Paulo Sunday: Vettel wins. Hamilton class of the field
When Hamilton is good, he is very, very good
SEBASTIAN Vettel drove a faultless race at the Interlagos track in Brazil last Sunday to win in his Ferrari from Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas with Kimi Raikkonen close behind in the other Ferrari.
Just off the podium was Lewis Hamilton in fourth place very close to Kimi’s tail. His was the drive of the day as he came from the back of the grid starting in the pits.
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Hamilton gave a very professional exhibition of fast but smooth driving as he, one by one, carved his way through the field. When he’s good, he’s very, very good and, unfortunately for the others, that is most of the time!
Max Verstappen in fifth place gave us another exhibition of good forceful driving but his Red Bull was just no match for the Ferraris or Mercedes on this relatively high speed circuit. Teammate Daniel Ricciardo did extremely well to also come through the field and finish in sixth spot.
Veteran and local hero of the crowd, Felipe Massa, in his Williams Mercedes had a race-long tussle from the other highly talented senior, Fernando Alonso, who again, with devastating ability, was carrying his McLaren Honda on his back. His car was a good 15km/h slower than the rest down the main straight!
They were seventh and eighth. Sergio Perez drove another canny race in his Force India Mercedes and really deserved a higher position, but such was the competition.
The last point-scoring position, 10th, went to Nico Hulkenberg in an ever-improving works Renault. Teammate Carlos Sainz Jnr had been challenging well in the other Renault in the early stages.
The next race in the UAE is in two weeks time but next week I will dine with Dieter Rencken of Autosport fame and South Africa’s only official F1 frontline reporter.
Dieter follows the circus to every race and is indeed very knowledgeable, so that I will be eking every bit of information out of him that I can. I wish to verify the extraordinary 30 to one compression ratios quoted by Martin Brundle for the latest F1 cars, as well as discussing the main design philosophy differences between Mercedes and the rest of the field. This involves, in particular, the longer wheelbase and shallow rake angle at which they run their cars. Interesting stuff!
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