Vettel Takes Brazilian Grand Prix; Red Bull Clinches Manufacturer's Title

Photo Credit: Andrew Ferraro/ LAT Photographic

The penultimate round in the 2010 Formula 1 tour, the Brazilian Grand Prix started with four drivers in contention for the season's world driver's championship. Suffering a massive meltdown during the Korean Grand Prix, the Red Bull Racing duo of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber left without scoring championship points. With Webber parked, Ferrari's Fernando Alonso cleaned up racing to victory on the wet Korean race circuit propelling himself into 1st place with an 11-point advantage.

Contrary to the Korean Grand Prix, the weather for the Brazilian Grand Prix was an absolutely bright, sunny day. However, Saturday qualifying did present a watered-down Autódromo José Carlos Pace track. As the track transitioned, Williams F1's Nico Hulkenberg surprised many by claiming pole ahead of Red Bull Racing and McLaren.  

Hulkenberg's honour was quickly disregarded by the Formula 1 field as the Williams-Cosworth was simply no match for the Red Bull-Renaults off the standing start. With Sebastian Vettel using a superior start to out-drag his fellow German native into the first corner, Mark Webber got by the Williams on the track's third turn. As Nico Hulkenberg continued a gradual drop down the running order to settle within the bottom end of the top-10 for the duration of the event, the Red Bull Racing cars installed themselves into Brazilian Grand Prix's top race positions.

Formula 1 current driver's points championship Fernando Alonso weaved his way into third place but his Ferrari lost touch with the Red Bull-Renaults. By mid-way through the 71-lap grand prix, the gap between 2rd place and 3rd was over 16 seconds. Unable to fight for the front, the McLaren-Mercedes race cars of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button ran competitively but were unsuccessful in preserving the team's chances for the manufacturers championship.      

Unlike the Korean Grand Prix which resulted with a sizable casualty list, the Formula 1 race at Brazil ended with one official retirement. That solitary vehicle not finishing the Brazil Grand Prix was the Force India-Mercedes of Vitantonio Liuzzi that ended the race with a collision into the turn 2 pit road wall at lap 50. As the wreckage of the Force India-Mercedes littered within the narrow off-track area, safety car period was necessary to clean up the turn 2 portion of Autódromo José Carlos Pace circuit.

Under the brief period behind the Mercedes SLS AMG safety car, some teams used this opportunity to take on fresh slick tires. McLaren and the Mercedes GP pitted while the top-3 maintained its composition. As the race was sent back to green on lap 56, the restart had a collection of slower race cars separating the 3 top Formula 1 cars aiding in Vettel's defense of the lead over Mark Webber.

While Liuzzi's crash was the only race-ending collision, their was no shortage of contact on the Brazilian race circuit. Ferrari driver Felipe Massa ended his home country's grand prix in 15th place after no fewer than two incidents of contact with other race cars. The latest incident occurred between Massa and Renault's Vitaly Petrov in turn one as they were fighting for position late in the grand prix. Both drivers continued to finish the race. Other Brazilian drivers including Rubens Barrichello and Bruno Senna were also presented with disappointing results in their home grand prix wanting to impressive the country where their careers were first stoked.

Despite some minor drama regarding fuel mileage concerns on the final laps, the Red Bull-Renaults rolled down the track's front stretch with Sebastian Vettel taking the victory in the Brazilian Grand Prix. Mark Webber's second place run guaranteed Red Bull Racing their first constructor title in Formula 1 with a 48 point cushion over McLaren heading into the final race at Abu Dhabi.

Playing follow the leader throughout the event, Fernando Alonso settled with 3rd gaving up points to both of his main drivers title opponents. Moving from 11 points behind to a tighter 8 point gap behind Alonso, Webber closes along with teammate Vettel now 15 points away from lead. Finishing 4th in the Brazilian Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton barely holds onto F1 World Championship contention but would need an awful amount of trouble to plague the forward three in the points at Abu Dhabi in order to gain the McLaren driver's 2nd F1 title.

Other qualifying on pole, Nico Hulkenberg's race resulted with a respectable 8th place run improving two spots thanks to the pitting during the safety car period.


2010 Formula 1
Brazilian Grand Prix
Race Results

 

1. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault
2. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault
3. Fernando Alonso Ferrari
4. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes
5. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes
6. Nico Rosberg Mercedes GP
7. Michael Schumacher Mercedes GP
8. Nico Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth
9. Robert Kubica Renault F1
10. Kamui Kobayashi BMW Sauber-Ferrari
11. Jaime Alguersuari STR-Ferrari
12. Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes
13. Sebastien Buemi STR-Ferrari
14. Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth
15. Felipe Massa Ferrari
16. Vitaly Petrov Renault F1
17. Nick Heidfeld BMW Sauber-Ferrari
18. Heikki Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth
19. Jarno Trulli Lotus-Cosworth
20. Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth
21. Bruno Senna HRT-Cosworth
22. Christian Klien HRT-Cosworth
23. Lucas di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth
24. Vitantonio Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes

Keselowski Locks Up 2010 NASCAR Nationwide Series at Texas

Photo Credit: Autostock via Penske Racing


As Carl Edwards won the O'Reilly Auto Parts Challenge at Texas Motor Speeday through a green-white checkered run to the finish, attention to the NASCAR Nationwide Series quickly shifted to the 3rd place #22 Dodge driven by Brad Keselowski. Leaving the O'Reilly Auto Parts Challenge with a 465-point lead over Carl Edwards, Keselowski clinches the 2010 NASCAR Nationwide Series championship with two races still left to be run.


On the way to his first NASCAR overall points title, Brad Keselowski's efforts were helped by 24 top-5s along with 27 top-10 finishes. Running at the end of every race, the worst result for the #22 Dodge this season was 21st at Chicagoland Speedway. Accumulating 6 wins on the 2010 season, Brad Keselowski's dedication to a full season in NASCAR Nationwide Series made was pivotal him only 1of 12 drivers have carried out a full Nationwide Series schedule.



Photo Credit: Jonathon Ferrey/ Getty Images for NASCAR

Remembering just 4 seasons ago, Brad Keselowski was an unproven talent without a permanent stock car ride. Keselowski's future changed at O'Reilly Raceway Park when a truck team needed a substitute driver to replace their recently suspended wheelman. Taking pole and leading a considerable number of laps, the performance was enough to attract JR Motorsports to the Michigan native. Entrusted to the #88 Chevrolet in the NASCAR Nationwide Series for two full seasons, Keselowski won 6 races but was no match for the division's championship. Finishing 3rd in the points both 2008 and 2009, Brad Keselowski was bested by NASCAR Sprint Cup regulars in previous seasons. For 2010, Keselowski entered the ranks of full-time Sprint Cup Series by signing with Penske Racing but still had unfinished business inside of the Nationwide Series. This year with the support of Penske Racing's farm team, it was the Michigan state driver's turn to claim superiority.


A first title for Brad Keselowski, this championship is also the first in NASCAR for mega owner Roger Penske.

Edwards Storms Ahead of Busch to Win Texas Nationwide Race

Photo Credit: John Harrelson/ Getty Images for NASCAR

By Reid Spencer


Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service



FORT WORTH, Texas (Nov. 6, 2010) — Carl Edwards knew he had to get everything he could on a restart with two laps left in Saturday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts Challenge at Texas Motor Speedway.

Kyle Busch, who finished second to Edwards, was convinced the race winner got too much.



Nevertheless, after a green-white-checkered-flag finish, it was Edwards who celebrated his third win of the season and the 28th of his career, after thwarting Busch’s attempt to win his record sixth straight NASCAR Nationwide Series race at the 1.5-mile track.



Edwards, however, couldn’t prevent third-place finisher Brad Keselowski from clinching the Nationwide drivers championship, the first NASCAR title for team owner Roger Penske. With two races left, Keselowski leads second-place Edwards by an insurmountable 465 points.



Edwards held the lead when caution flew for the fifth time on Lap 198 of a scheduled 200, when smoke billowed from Clint Bowyer’s Chevrolet as it sped through the tri-oval. That gave Busch, who led a race-high 107 laps, a final chance to battle Edwards for the lead, but the fight failed to materialize.



Why? Busch contended Edwards hit the gas before the restart zone delineated by red stripes on the outer walls.



“Carl Edwards jumped the restart by about three lengths before the double red marks,” Busch said after the race. “Does it freakin’ matter? The race is over. The guy’s in Victory Lane. It doesn’t matter.”



Edwards was unapologetic.



“I had to do everything I could,” Edwards said. “Kyle and those guys have a spectacular car, and he does a really good job on restarts. So I just got the best restart I could, and it ended up winning us the race. He’s tough. He raced me really well on the one before that (Lap 191), but I knew if I gave him an inch, he’d beat us.”



Understandably, Keselowski was elated at clinching the championship.



“I’m so very fortunate and blessed to have this opportunity with (crew chief) Paul Wolfe and Roger and everybody back at the shop,” Keselowski said. “The guys that are there miss their kids’ Little League games working hard on my car,



“We almost had a win here today. I wanted to win this one, too, but it didn’t work out.”



Edwards made sure of that. He passed Busch on Lap 155 and held the top spot until Parker Kligerman spun off Turn 2 on Lap 185 to cause the fourth caution of the race. Edwards retained the lead after a wild restart on Lap 191 and pulled away from Busch before a caution on Lap 198 slowed the field and sent the race to overtime.



Joey Logano finished fourth, followed by Martin Truex Jr.



Notes: With the victory, Edwards won $75,000 in Nationwide’s Dash4Cash program. Thirteenth-place finisher Justin Allgaier won the $75,000 Dash4Cash season-ending bonus as the eligible driver who scored the most points in the four Dash4Cash races. … Edwards’ victory was his 50th combined in NASCAR’s top three series. … Busch posted his 11th top-10 finish in 12 races at Texas.