The Midfield
Torro Rosso struggled for pace in the early stages, unable to keep up with those ahead on heavy tanks and finding it difficult to overtake. Towards the end it looked like Ricciardo was going to hold onto tenth place, but in the final few laps his grip went completely and he was at the mercy of Jenson Button, who helped himself to the final point. Jean-Eric Vergne came home P16, having initially started on a two-stop strategy before swapping to a one-stop, managing them carefully before a push in the final 15 laps. On the final lap he tangled with his teammate and Gutierrez, sending them wide and resulting in a spin for Gutierrez. Felipe Massa could only finish P12 after his one-stop strategy was switched to a two-stop late in the race, which compromised the pace of the strategy further by losing much of the race where he could have been pushing harder. Massa never really got into the groove this weekend and struggled with traffic, leaving him frustrated and looking forward to his final race with Ferrari at home in Brazil. In the second Sauber Gutierrez had a tough race from the back of the field following his penalty from qualifying. An early pit stop after the safety car swapped him onto a different strategy to those around him and got him into the mix, but his drop off in pace around the time others pitted meant he dropped back again, before a spin on the final lap, eventually finishing P13 in what was his first, and maybe his last, outing in Texas. On his return to racing, Kovalainen could only finish P14, following a cautious start that saw him lose some places. His pace was alright but he struggled with downforce, bringing about a nose change and extended stop that dropped him well out of the points, compounded by a KERS failure, making a tricky weekend worse. Force India had a woeful afternoon again, as Sutil went out on the first lap. He'd been looking competitive and the faster of the two teammates, only to clip Maldonado with his rear left on the first lap and spin into the barriers for a hefty crash, bringing out the safety car for four laps as the US marshals slowly cleared up. Paul di Resta fared little better by the end of the race, as after a decent first stint he suffered heavier tyre wear than expected, causing him to pit with nine laps to go and dropping him to P15. Maldonado couldn't match the pace of his teammate in the second Williams, finishing in P17 and a lap down despite having fairly strong pace. He was involved in the incident with Sutil on the first lap, damaging his front wing and causing the team to adjust their strategy to swap him to the harder tyres earlier than intended. He had a difficult weekend overall, overshadowed by unwelcome comments towards Williams after qualifying, and was looking forward to Brazil.