For the latest race on the calendar we were taken to the land of Cowboys (including Daniel Ricciardo) where we were treated to a true spectacle which included horses, cheerleaders and Shaquille O’Neal – and after years of the safety car gathering dust, it got two outings in one Sunday. Want to know what that means for your favourite drivers? Be sure to check out the report cards!
Top of the class:
Sebastian Vettel – Qualifying: 12th (started 10th) | Race: 7th (finished 8th)
It kind of feels like Seb is on his farewell tour, with the way he seems determined to say goodbye to every single one of his adoring fans in each corner of the world. Unsurprising, considering many suspect that the German will be dropping off the face of the earth (or rather disappear up in the mountains) once he takes his helmet off for the last time in the final race of the season. But for now, we’ve still got him, and he seems to have made it his mission to show what we will be missing out on in the future. He’s been on a roll in recent races and he continued this excellent streak into Austin.
In Texas Vettel managed to lead the 3,500th lap of his F1 career and he looked to be on course to be finishing on P6. A slow stop dropped him out of points contention, however, but the German seemed determined not to let it get him down, as he immediately began elbowing his way back up into the points, a feat which earned him the title of driver of the day.
I’d also highly recommend just watching back the start, moving up from 10th to by Turn 2 was rolling back time to the very best of Seb’s career.
Kevin Magnussen – Qualifying: 16th (Started 13th) | Race: 8th (finished 9th)
The Dane managed to end a pointless streak of seven races with a bold one-stop strategy, the only other driver who made that work was Alonso. It was an excellent race for Kevin to bring home a couple of points, as this is the team’s home Grand Prix. It’s a shame that things didn’t work out on the other side of the garage, as it looked promising there too, but at least with this points haul Haas remains ahead of AlphaTauri for now.
Red Bull Racing:
Max Verstappen – Qualifying: 3rd (started 2nd) | Race: 1st
Sergio Perez – Qualifying: 4th (started 9th) | Race: 4th
After a somewhat odd way of winning the Drivers’ Championship with Max, Red Bull got a hold of the Constructors’ Championship in style. It wasn’t an easy win for Verstappen, despite it looking like it would be in the early stages of the race. The Dutchman complained about the gusty track conditions, but kept clocking impressive times and quickly pulled a gap.
Things then quickly unravelled in the second half of the race, as like Vettel, Verstappen had to deal with a slow stop, meaning he ended up falling back further than originally strategised. Still, the Dutchman kept his head down (and his foot) and shot his way back up to first, taking his 13th victory of the season.
Checo started further back than he might have liked after qualifying, mainly due to having to take new engine components, and he didn’t help himself in the first lap either by colliding with Valtteri Bottas at turn 9 – but his charge up to fourth afterwards makes one wonder how important a front wing end plate really is, if he managed so well without. Then there is the matter that Perez didn’t get penalised for a loose part whilst Alonso did, but that’s not something we should be taking up with the stewards rather than Checo himself. All in all, Red Bull had a weekend to be pretty proud of, and a Constructors’ Championship after going without for 9 years is really just the cherry on top.
Then for honourable mentions…
The first of the three honourable mentions goes to Yuki Tsunoda, who ended a run of 13 races without points with a superb drive, probably one of the best drives of his career thus far. The second honourable mention goes to Charles Leclerc, who had a hell of a recovery race after having to take a 10-place grid penalty and found his way back to the podium. The last honourable mention goes to Lewis Hamilton, who might not have kept a hold of first to be awarded the win, but that doesn’t make his race any less impressive.
Struggle Bus:
Pierre Gasly – Qualifying: 13th (started 11th) | Race: 13th
It started out so well, with Pierre having climbed up to seventh before the safety car, but with him dropping more than 10 lengths back from Vettel in front under safety car conditions, the Frenchman earned himself a 5-second penalty. This was later followed up by a hard-hitting 10-second penalty when the first one was served incorrectly. A day which had so much potential basically unravelled in front of Pierre’s eyes, which certainly is enough to earn a ride on the struggle bus.
George Russell – Qualifying: 6th (started 4th) | Race: 5th (+FL)
Whilst Hamilton had a drive worthy of an honourable mention, the driver on the other side of the garage landed himself a seat on the struggle bus. George locked up on turn one, tipping then-race-leader Carlos Sainz in a spin and effectively ended the Spaniard’s race, which is something George accepted the blame for. The sustained damage was then enough to make for a long afternoon. Granted, he got to pit late for softs so he could secure the fastest lap of the race, but otherwise it wasn’t the Sunday Russell hoped for, continuing a bit of a slump in performance since the Summer break.
The Stewards:
There is also space enough on the struggle bus for the stewards of this race, as they once again were quite inconsistent. Whilst both Perez and Alonso were driving around with loose parts (a wing end plate for the one and a mirror for the other) neither driver received the ‘meatball’, something which is quite inconsistent with recent races, where Kevin Magnussen got the meatball for the slightest hiccup. Then after the race the discrepancies grew, as Haas protested the lack of action which resulted in Alonso ended up getting a meatball retrospectively. Earned himself a stop-and-go penalty which converts to 30 seconds, dropping him out of the points to fifteenth.
Then for dishonourable mentions…
First up is Valtteri Bottas. For him, a small mistake had big consequences and he spun out of the race to end up beached in the gravel. The second dishonourable mention goes to Carlos Sainz, or rather his misfortune, as he had a promising Sunday starting from pole, but all those promises and dreams ended up going down the drain when he first got jumped by Verstappen before being hit by Russell for his third first-lap retirement of 2022.
The end of the season is rapidly approaching, with only three more races on the calendar. The first of which is at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City. Another evening race for us in Europe, so be sure to sit at the ready at 8PM UK time to catch lights going out on Sunday 30th October. Although don’t forget to keep an eye on those clocks going back an hour!
