Sebastian Vettel did take his sixth engine as expected at Austin. The unusual rule basically meant that qualifying at all was useless, but Vettel did anyway to ensure that he could not be caught out by the 107% rule. A really odd attempt at running virtually the entire race on a single set of tyres didn’t work out but Vettel did salvage something. Meanwhile, Daniel Ricciardo achieved yet another brilliant podium as he held off the Williams cars and pulled off some fantastic overtaking once again.
Red Bull United States Grand Prix Review
No. 1 Sebastian Vettel (GER)
Grid: Pit lane (Qualified P17)
Race: P7
It was a rather unusual race for Vettel. He was given a Monza-spec rear wing so he could do plenty of overtaking for the race. He did very little of that as he had serious understeer whilst attempting to make a set of medium tyres last the whole race. That idea was scrapped after about half distance and from that point Vettel seemed to thrive. With only a handful of laps Vettel pitted again, this time for soft tyres, and managed to go from 14th up to seventh and very nearly had Fernando Alonso at the end. Vettel also took fastest lap.
From the pit lane to P7. It was an excellent charge through the field from Sebastian. #USGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/vljrlYS1PH
— Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) November 2, 2014
No. 3 Daniel Ricciardo (AUS)
Grid: P5
Race: P3
It was another textbook 2014-style Ricciardo performance: Qualifying was great, he probably placed the car where it should have been; his start was not-so great, and those still need work; but his race pace and his ability to overtake cars was absolutely supreme. He fell behind Alonso at the start but made mincemeat of him at the restart, and he passed both Williams cars in the pit stops en route to yet another podium finish. He also managed to hold off the Williams cars despite them looking mighty quick at the Circuit of the Americas.
Great weekend as always in Austin. On and off the track an all round good time! Leaving here happy pic.twitter.com/ayI1wfOUCI
— Daniel Ricciardo (@danielricciardo) November 3, 2014
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