Vettel caps off season in style with ninth consecutive win

(Updated 8:15am) SAO PAULO - Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel wrapped up the Formula One season on Sunday (Monday, PHL time) by winning the Brazilian Grand Prix and becoming the first driver to take nine successive victories in a single year.

The sport's youngest quadruple world champion, still only 26 years old, also matched fellow-German Michael Schumacher's 2004 record of 13 wins in a season.

"Guys, I am so proud of you. I love you. Remember this, enjoy this moment. Yes. We did it. This is unbelievable," said Vettel, his voice wavering over the team radio after he took the checkered flag for his 39th career win.

While he celebrated, Australian teammate Mark Webber said farewell with second place, anchoring a one-two in his 215th and final race for the champions before heading to Le Mans sportscars with Porsche.

The Australian removed his helmet on the slowing down lap, feeling the wind in his hair and letting the cheering crowd see his face.

Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, this season's overall-runner-up, finished third on a day when the skies over Interlagos failed to deliver the rain that had forced delays to qualifying on Saturday (Sunday, PHL time).

The only other Formula One driver to win nine in a row was Italian Alberto Ascari, but his were over two campaigns in 1952-53 at a time when there were not even nine races in a season.

"You can't really compare it," said Vettel. "In the fifties the races were much longer and there were a lot of things that were breaking down.

"I think his record still stands out a lot. So at the end of the day, as I see it now, it's just a number. But hopefully one day, when I've got less hair and chubby, then it's probably something nice to look back to."

Vettel and Red Bull had secured their fourth successive drivers' and constructors' titles in India last month and the German has been so dominant that the only hope of an upset had seemed in the hands of the notoriously fickle Sao Paulo weather.

In the end it proved no threat, even if Vettel - on pole position - was overtaken by compatriot Nico Rosberg's Mercedes at the start.

Vettel passed him back at the start of the second lap and, apart from having his lead over Webber halved at a slow second pitstop, never looked back.

"I'm actually quite sad this season comes to an end, the German said, with some understatement, in a podium interview after he and Alonso had doused Webber, who ends the year third in the championship, in champagne.

"The second half of the season, to win every race, is unbelievable."

Button fourth

Jenson Button, the 2009 world champion and last before Vettel, finished fourth for McLaren - a result that rescued the team from suffering their worst season since their debut in 1966.

Even so, McLaren still ended a season without a podium finish for the first time since 1980.

Rosberg was fifth for Mercedes, who ended the championship as overall runners-up and six points ahead of Ferrari.

Mexican Sergio Perez was sixth, after starting 19th following a five-place grid penalty, in his final appearance for McLaren with his future uncertain.

Brazilian Felipe Massa, shaking his fists at stewards as he drove through the pits for a costly penalty imposed for crossing a white line, brought down the curtain on eight years as a Ferrari driver with seventh place in front of his home fans ahead of Sauber's Nico Hulkenberg.

"This is unbelievable, unacceptable," Massa had shouted over the team radio.

Mercedes's Lewis Hamilton was ninth and was also handed a drive-through penalty for a coming together with Finland's Valtteri Bottas that left the Briton limping back to the pits with a puncture while the Williams shed a rear tire and retired.

Australian Daniel Ricciardo, Webber's replacement at Red Bull next season, was 10th for Toro Rosso.

Marussia won the battle with Malaysian-owned Caterham for 10th place in the constructors' championship - a position with considerable financial implications for both with only the top 10 getting a share of the revenues.

As an added bonus for Marussia, whose engine partner Cosworth were bowing out along with the now defunct V8, their British driver Max Chilton set a record for a rookie of 19 successive finishes in his debut season.  - Reuters

F1 Alonso gave up a little bit, says Ecclestone

LONDON - Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone has expressed disappointment with Fernando Alonso's performance at Ferrari and suggested the Spaniard was looking for a move earlier in the year.

"I've been a little bit disappointed in Fernando because I'm a big supporter of him and of Ferrari," Ecclestone, 83, wrote in a foreword to the official Formula One season review.

"I thought he gave up a little bit which is proof that he was looking for another team.

"I don't know whether the team is not competitive because of him or because the people who are running the team aren't getting the job done," added Ecclestone.

Alonso finished the season as overall runner-up to Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel who clinched his fourth title in four years to become the youngest quadruple champion.

McLaren made no secret earlier in the season that they would jump at a chance to sign Alonso, who had one turbulent year with them in 2007, should he become available.

Ferrari, third overall in the constructors' standings, has described their season as one to forget while praising Alonso for his results in a car that was not even second best.

Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo did, however, reprimand Alonso on the Spaniard's birthday in July for unflattering comments he made about his car.

Ecclestone said he had always predicted Vettel would be 'what he is', with the German winning the last nine races of the year and 13 in total to equal seven-time champion Michael Schumacher's 2004 record.

"You probably have to say he's number one of the drivers I've known," added the Briton whose involvement with the sport goes back to the 1950s.

He also singled out Kimi Raikkonen, the 2007 champion who will be Alonso's teammate at Ferrari next season after leaving Lotus.

"This year I suppose I have to call Kimi the star driver, with the equipment he has," said Ecclestone of the Finn who left Lotus after complaining he had not received his wages. "I think he was motivated on hope that he was going to get paid.

"He's a good guy to have in a team, good for us, good for the team. He's super, he's a racer."

Pirelli, who caused many of the season's headlines with exploding tires at Silverstone and complaints about how quickly their rubber wore out, also received a glowing report from Ecclestone.

"Pirelli did a wonderful job for us," he said. "I told them we don't want tires that last the race, we want tires that nobody knows how they are going to last. We've got that too with the new engines next year."

Formula One is switching from the V8 engines to a new V6 turbocharged unit with energy recovery systems.

Ecclestone has long been a critic of the new units, fearing that the different noise will alienate the paying public, and he returned to the fray in the review.

"I still think what we have now is good, I don't think there was any need to change it," he said.  - Reuters