Vettel Is The World Champion For The 3rd Year

Vettel On Top of The World With His Third World Championship

Sebastian Vettel (Ger) becomes the youngest driver to win three World championships in a row at the age of 25.

McLaren's Jenson Button (GB) won the Brazilian Grand Prix marking his third Grand Prix victory of the season (Australian Grand Prix and the Belgian Grand Prix).

But the race was all about Sebastian Vettel and all of Red Bull's hardwork put in to get where they are now after becoming contenders in 2009.

Vettel crossed the line in 6th place which was enough to seal his third title. The race ended with a safety car after Paul Di Resta (GB) spun and hit the barrier with the back of his car on the last turn.

It was a huge scare for the World champion and the whole Red Bull team at the start of the race. On turn 4 Vettel was hit from the back of his car in which Williams' Bruno Senna (Bra) made contact with Vettel and future McLaren driver, Sergio Perez (Mex) was also involved in the incident.

Luckily for Vettel there was no threatening damage to the car and Vettel did a smart move in which he reversed the car while other cars were driving past. Vettel had a lot of work to do as he was in last position.

Senna, Perez and Senna's team mate, Pastor Maldonado (Ven) were all out of the race on the opening lap.

Championship contender, Fernando Alonso (Spa) had a great start to the race as he overtook his team mate, Felipe Massa (Bra) and Mark Webber (Aus) as he was able to move up the board needing to get a podium finish to have a chance of winning his third World title. Alonso used his main tactic that he has used all season which is overtaking 2 - 3 cars on the first turn.

Three laps into the race Vettel had just started warming up as he achieved the first fastest lap of the race.

Two laps later, Alonso nearly scuppered his chances as he went off the first turn and just missed the barrier and defended his position (4th) from Webber.

Romain Grosjean (Fra) has had a very eventful season for being involved with so many incidents and being responsible for nearly most of them. Well the Lotus driver ended his season with a smash into the barrier on lap 6 after slipping off the track. Grosjean ended the season in style.

10 laps later, Vettel was driving just like he did in Abu Dhabi earlier in November as he took over Kamui Kobayashai (Jap) and was not far behind Alonso.

On the 19th lap Hulkenberg took the lead for the very first time after overtaking Button on the first turn as Button's car locked up.

A few laps after Hulkenberg taking the lead, there was debris on the track which meant that the safety car was going to make its first appearance of the day. Hulkenberg and Button went in for their first pitstops as they had a massive gap from the chasers but with the safety car the gap was no more. During the safety car period Red Bull's car designer, Adrian Newey had a picture of Vettel's damage to the car that was damaged from the first lap. Race resumed on lap 29.

There was another scare for the World champion as Vettel's radio was not working which meant that he could not contact his team from the pits.

Two laps later Vettel went to the pits for some slick tyres but the tyres were not performing for him as he went back to the pits two laps after his slick tyre change and went for intermediate tyres.

There was another Kimi Raikkonen moment during the race in which we have seen a lot of surprising moments from the 2007 World champion. Raikkonen went off the track and saw a gap in the barrier (which is used if any near by accidents happen, can take damaged car through) which he thought would take him back to the track but unfortunately the gate was closed so the "iceman" had to turn back and go through the exit he came in. Good old Kimi.

On the 55th lap Hamilton and Hulkenberg caused an incident on turn 1. Hulkenberg lost control and started to slip which hit Hamilton and caused both cars to go off the track which put Hamilton out of the race his front left wheel was broken. Hamilton stopped the car in disappointment as he would of wanted to end his time at McLaren with a bang! Hulkenberg had to go to the pits for a drive through penalty.

With 8 laps to go until the chequered flag, Button was in the lead with Alonso 20 seconds behind, Alonso needed Button's position to win the World championship but Button's performance in recent wet races have been very impressive especially back in the 2011 Canadian Grand Prix (I'm sure most of you will remember).

With Schumacher driving his last ever race in his F1 career, the 7 time World champion moved out of the way to let Vettel pass and take 6th position. Vettel has said in interviews that Schumacher is an inspiration to him.

An inspiration: Schumacher (right) congratulating Vettel (left)

There was a lot of emotions for most drivers on race day. It was Lewis Hamilton's (GB) last drive for McLaren before joining Mercedes at the end of the year in which he would be replacing the 7 time World champion, Michael Schumacher (Ger) after being with McLaren at the age of 13.

Race day was Schumacher's last day in Formula 1 for the second time after rejoining F1 back in March 2010. But Schumacher has said that this would definately be the last time. Before the warm up lap the staff at Mercedes attached a flag to Schumacher's car saying "thank you" as Schumacher drove around the Sao Paulo circuit to say thank you to all the spectators and to all of his fans from around the world.

Caterham's Heikki Kovalainen (Fin) is likely to have driven his last race of his F1 career as the former McLaren driver has no contract with any team for next season. It could also have been Kamui Kobayashai's (Jap) last race in F1 as the Japanese driver has no extended contract with Sauber and has been replaced by a new Mexican driver, Esteban Gutierrez (Mex) who will team up with Nico Hulkenberg (Ger) next season.

It was also Charles Pic's (Fra) last race for Marussia as he will be transferred to Caterham with Vitaly Petrov (Rus). Petrov finished the race in 11th place which is Petrov's highest finish of the season as it secured Caterham's final position in 10th place in the constructors champinship. Pic finished one place below the Russian which wasn't enough for Marussia to take 10th place, Pic's highest position of the season.
Very impressive from two of the slowest cars of Formula 1.

Petrov (back) will be delighted with his finish ahead
of Pic (front)

It has been an absolute fantastic season!

There were 8 different drivers winning at least one Grand Prix this season. They were Jenson Button, Fernando Alonso, Nico Rosberg, Sebastain Vettel, Mark Webber, Pastor Maldonado, Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen. Which is a new record.

Red Bull for the third year running have dominated the World and constructors championship. Will they do it for the fourth year running? We'll find out in next year's season.

New season starts in March as it kicks off with the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne as usual.

FIA F1 World Championship Final Standings

FIA F1 Constructors Championship Final Standings

Race Report by
Jamie Davies
Let's Talk Sport writer

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