Vettel Closes Out Season in Style, Wins Starting in 15th

Qualifying:

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Report:

A sold-out Shanghai International Circuit saw Sebastian Vettel putting on an artistic performance.

It is just apt that the final race of a season dominated by a single driver is used by that driver to showcase all of his skill. Sebastian Vettel was “given” that chance due to his engine-related retirement in Saturday’s race. Having to work your way up from 15th would always show us what Seb can really do: a freaking lot. He managed to overcome the odds and take his seventeenth and final win of the season.

The key to this success were a good start and great passing, which saw Vettel easily get close to the top 5 even before the first phase of stops had begun. After that, it was batting clean-up in the pitlane, Vettel’s strategy proving good enough to launch himself up to second in the second round of stops. After that, hunting down Daniel Ricciardo seemed easy for the 2017 world champion.

Behind the battle of the world champions, Will Power fought a heroic battle trying to grab 4th in the WCC back from Sauber. Unfortunately, Pastor Maldonado was able to prevent that from happening by securing fastest lap early in the race and then hanging on to the last podium spot. Maldonado saved Sauber again, after Simon Pagenaud, just like the Precision team, seemed to have gone on holiday mentally already.

Disappointments were not rare in this race: Precision-Mercedes and Pagenaud were already mentioned. They are joined by Luiz Razia, who had a miserable afternoon and couldn’t use the good pace of his car, Daniil Kvyat who seemed to have fully abandoned any hope of winning anything and Conor Daly, who finished the final race of the year with a disappointing 20th place.

Race:

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Fastest Lap:

Pastor Maldonado – 1:33.880

Infinite Improbability Drive Of The Race:

Sebastian Vettel – Even in such a superior car, winning from 15th takes noticeable skill.

Reject Of The Race:

Kevin Magnussen – Being the only retirement is bad, being it because of a driver error is worse.