Well what can I say? Austin certainly through up a fantastic race in my opinion. Firstly we had the controversial decision by Ferrari to break the seal on Felipe Massa's gearbox meaning the Brazilian took a 5 place grid penalty, this resulted in Alonso being promoted to 7th on the grid on the clean side oft the track.
After all the talk about how drivers would be hampered off the grid if the started on the dirty side it was actually reasonably okay. Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber made tidy getaways with Webber slotting in behind Seb. The big loser off the start was Kimi Raikkonen who dropped back a number of place's however he recovered well throughout the race and had some great battle's with Jenson Button and Nico Hulkenbrrg.
The Iceman pulled off a fantastic overtake of the Force India and went on to finish in 6th place with team mate Romain Grosjean recovering well from an early spin to give Lotus a double point's finish as he came home in 7th place.
It was a great race for the Williams driver's of Pastor Maldonado and Bruno Senna who finished the race in 9th and 10th respectively. Back at the front Mark Webber suffered his second retirement in as many race's after both his KERS and his alternator both failed which could potentially be a worry for RedBull heading to Brazil next weekend.
Ferrari's Felipe Massa had a great race after starting from 11th on the grid the Brazilian had a great battle with Kimi Raikkonen and after being consistently faster then Alonso all weekend he managed to finish just behind his team mate in 4th place.
It was a disappointing day for both Sauber and Mercedes as neither team picked up any points this weekend. It was particularly unfortunate for Mercedes as the last time they picked up points was in Monza in September.
Sergio Perez had hoped for a great result for Sauber in front of a large home following as thousands of fans from Mexico crossed the border for the GrandPrix. Unfortunately they went home disappointed as Sergio finished the race just outside the points in 11th place with team mate Kamui Kobayashi coming home in 14th.
Over at Mercedes, Nico Rosberg had a disappointing race as he finished in 13th place, meanwhile team-mate Michael Schumacher, competing in his second last race before retiring was involved in controversy as he had a very close call with Jenson Button as he squeezed the McLaren driver out going down the main straight forcing the Brit to take to the pit lane exit to avoid a collision. Schumacher went on to finish the race in 16th place, one lap down on the man who replacing him at Merc next season.
Jenson Button recovered extremely well after a poor qualifying yesterday by finishing in 5th place. Lewis Hamilton drove the wheel's off his McLaren and lap 42 of the 56 lap race he made his move and deployed his DRS and KERS to overtake Sebastian Vettel and take the first race win at the Circuit of The America's track in Austin Texas. It was an incredible race weekend a complete sellout and the officials and race organizers should be delighted with the show that they put on this weekend.
So with Vettel finishing second and and Alonso finishing third RedBull Racing secured their third Constructor's championship in a row but crucially for the championship and more importantly all of us as fan's of the sport we have a TITLE SHOWDOWN next weekend in Brazil with 13 points separating the two title contenders.
Heading to Brazil, Vettel is favourite to win the title however there is an extremely high possibility that it will rain in Sao Paulo and with questions over the RedBull alternator it is all still wide open. It is going to be an exceptional end to an incredible 2012 F1 Season.
Austin has been sensational and Formula One is well and truly back on the map in the US. I can't wait until Austin 2013!!
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