Race
Red Bull dominated yet again in America, with Vettel getting into the lead at the first turn and never relinquishing it. Pursued by Grosjean, he didn't have the huge advantage we saw last time out but he was entirely comfortable as he swept to victory. A safety car for Sutil's debris had little effect on the race as thereafter Webber fought Grosjean hard but couldn't take second off him as he did in Japan. The rest of the field scrapped it out at times and there were some good overtakes through turn one, two and three, which gave us something to watch. The Front Runners
Vettel, predictably, raced off to another unchallenged victory, taking his eighth in a row to set a new record for consecutive wins in a season and take his twelfth of 2013, one away from equalling Schumacher's record of thirteen. Webber, after almost getting pole on Saturday, found himself muscled out at turn one and then despite great pace couldn't overtake Grosjean as he managed his tyres throughout the race in the final race his parents supported him at. Webber did however have the fastest stop in Formula 1 history, with his car stationary for just 1.923 seconds, an unimaginable time. Lotus had a mixed afternoon as Grosjean equalled his best result with second place, delivering a fantastic, calm drive following his strong start to bring them 18 points. It was a tough race ahead of Webber but he held it together to take the second step on the podium. Mercedes took fourth through Lewis Hamilton, feeling much happier with a new chassis and a car that felt a lot better, allowing him to race. While he couldn't fight with Mark and let him by fairly easily in order to preserve his tyres, he held off Alonso at the end to keep his position and complete a better weekend. Rosberg, after starting P12 following qualifying problems, came through into the points to secure ninth, though he was disappointed not to do better. It all added up to extending their lead on Ferrari however. Ferrari had another mixed weekend, not what they wanted to try and take second in the title. Alonso brought his car home in fifth by a whisker from Hulkenberg, a positive result that saw him seal second in the drivers' championship and suffer no back problems, though they couldn't challenge Mercedes. Hulkenberg returned to the top ten again with sixth place, making six points finishes from his last eight races. He drove a great race after a strong qualifying and was never far behind the Mercedes or Ferrari, only losing out to Alonso on a charge to the end. He had him at turn one on the final lap, only for Alonso to allow him the overtake and undercut him out of turn two to retain fifth. He still secured eight points however, and demonstrated he's punching well above his weight. Perez, racing now for his career following his dismissal from McLaren, had a fairly strong race to come through for seventh. Early on he was racing Alonso intently after passing him on the first lap, but then struggled with tyre degradation. He lost out to Alonso in the pit stops by coming in earlier, but still drove hard and took a solid six points for the team. Jenson Button, after having started a lowly P15, was in the wars again on the first lap with a broken front wing endplate and then he found himself stuck behind Massa for 30 laps. They opted to leave the nose and added more wing at the pit stop which helped him, but he still didn't have the pace he wanted as he worked his way up to the points with tenth place, snatching it from Ricciardo on the penultimate lap. He was however quite honest about his performance after the race, acknowledging that he needs to do better. On a special afternoon, Bottas kept his place to take eighth in his Williams, his first points and only Williams second top ten result all year. His whole weekend went well and culminated in a great result for the team, holding off Rosberg towards the end for a deserved result.