- 20 Nov 12, 20:03#335458
Courtesy to user Estesark on f1fanatic, the replies there fascinated me so much that I thought it was worth to see what you guys can come up with. We could have a dull race, but I’m sure we’re all hoping for a thriller to cap off an entertaining season. If there are some unexpected twists, you can bet your life that at least one commentator will say something like “you couldn’t make it up”. Well, this is your chance to make it up 
Describe, in as much detail as you like, how next weekend’s Grand Prix will play out. Throw in unpredictable weather, safety cars, crashes, dogs on the track, Frank Williams promoting himself to a race seat, Pedro de la Rosa leading the race thanks to a twenty-car pile-up, whatever you like. Just make it as tense and exciting as possible, and we’ll see if any of our scenarios turn out to be anything like reality
To kick it off, this was Estesark's scenario:
Describe, in as much detail as you like, how next weekend’s Grand Prix will play out. Throw in unpredictable weather, safety cars, crashes, dogs on the track, Frank Williams promoting himself to a race seat, Pedro de la Rosa leading the race thanks to a twenty-car pile-up, whatever you like. Just make it as tense and exciting as possible, and we’ll see if any of our scenarios turn out to be anything like reality
To kick it off, this was Estesark's scenario:
Sebastian Vettel dominates all three practice sessions and looks nailed on for pole position. After easily topping the charts in Q1, he decides to make only one run in Q2, in order to save a set of tyres. As he is nearing the end of his out-lap, he gets caught by surprise as Sergio Pérez, who spun and badly flat-spotted his tyres early in his flying lap, makes a slow return to the pits. After they narrowly avoid a collision, Vettel manages to start his flying lap, but has lost time down the first straight and seems shaken. His time is only good enough for tenth, which looks like it might just be enough to get through to Q3, but Felipe Massa is one of the last cars over the line and pulls himself into the top ten, eliminating Vettel.
In Q3, with Vettel out, the other world champions fight amongst themselves for pole. Lewis Hamilton gets the top spot, with Michael Schumacher putting in a stellar performance to join him on the front row. Mark Webber takes third, while Kimi Räikkönen and Jenson Button take fourth and fifth. Alonso can only manage sixth. Behind him are Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado, giving him cause for concern at the start. Massa is in ninth, which puts him right in front of Vettel, raising the possibility of Ferrari asking him to hold up the reigning world champion in order to help Alonso. Nico Rosberg rounds off the top ten.
The weather forecast for the race suggests there might be rain within fifteen minutes of the start, but there is no sign of it as the drivers take to the grid, so they all keep dry tyres on. As the race gets underway, Hamilton keeps his lead into the first corner, as Michael Schumacher struggles to hold on to second place. Alonso has one of his trademark starts and is up to fourth after the first corner. At the end of the first lap, it’s Hamilton – Webber – Schumacher – Alonso, with Vettel already up to eighth, having dealt with Massa straight away.
Alonso soon takes Schumacher for third place, putting him into the podium positions, the minimum he needs to win the title. Ten laps in, Vettel is now seventh and stuck behind Räikkönen; despite having a faster car for most of the lap, he doesn’t have the straight line speed to pass with DRS, and his tyres are beginning to suffer from the dirty air.
Everyone’s eyes are on the skies, but the rain still hasn’t arrived. The top drivers hold off from making pit stops in the anticipation that it might begin to rain at any moment. And that’s exactly what it does, about twenty laps in. It’s not a heavy shower, but Vettel is one of the first to dive into the pits, happy to exchange his worn-out slicks for some intermediates. Although it’s still pretty dry on his out lap, the rain quickly intensifies and he reaps the rewards as everyone else files into the pits, moving up to third place, directly in front of Alonso. Webber is the next car up the road, but the gap is around ten seconds, so Vettel sets about reeling him, after which Webber yields the position.
The rain persists, and the situation looks disastrous for Alonso, who can’t get enough heat into his tyres and is losing time to both Red Bulls every lap. But at the half-way point of the race, with the rain still falling steadily and visibility poor, Daniel Ricciardo collides into Jean-Éric Vergne and retires, bringing out the safety car (and the ire of Helmut Marko). Hamilton still leads, but Vettel, Webber and Alonso are now bunched up behind him. The safety car is out for quite a long time, as Ricciardo’s Toro Rosso has to be lifted off the track and many cars have to unlap themselves. In that time, the rain eases off to a light drizzle. At the restart on lap 41, Alonso finds more speed, overtaking Webber and then going after Vettel. Some good defensive driving in the wet from the German prevents Alonso making a pass, however, and the order of the top three remains steady until about lap 50, when the rain stops.
As a dry line begins to form and Alonso’s time begins to run out, he is the first into the pits for slick tyres, hoping to benefit just as Vettel did earlier. Although his times aren’t anything spectacular, Vettel nevertheless feels he has to react, and comes into the pits on the next lap. A problem with the front-right wheel gun costs him a couple of seconds, though, and as he exits the pits, he is side by side with Alonso. The two of them have an almighty tussle through the infield section of the track, but there’s drama at turn 12 as Alonso, who desperately needs to stay ahead, forces Vettel off the track in order to maintain position. Vettel is immediately on the radio to complain about the move, and the stewards share his opinion, giving Alonso a drive-through penalty. He emerges from it in fourth place, behind Mark Webber again.
Going into the last ten laps, Hamilton still leads, as he has done the whole race, having just quietly gone about his business regardless of the incidents behind him. Vettel is in second and is being urged by his team to hold the position rather than go for glory, as it would bring him the world championship. Vettel being Vettel, he ignores that advice, and Hamilton finds his lead being challenged for the first time in the race. Vettel, without the straight line speed to make a straightforward pass, gets stuck behind Hamilton for a few laps, but a small mistake from Hamilton with six laps to go allows Vettel to grab the inside line at turn 8 and move into the lead for what would be a remarkable victory.
It’s not that straightforward for him, however. Hands up, everyone who saw this coming: alternator failure. Vettel loses power with four laps remaining and is forced to pull off the track, throwing his steering wheel out of the car in rage. That promotes Alonso back into third position, enough for him to take the title. Everything seems like it’s falling into Ferrari’s lap, but there’s still a final twist.
Michael Schumacher, living up to his reputation as the Rainmeister, had looked after his intermediate tyres well in the wet and waited an extra few laps before returning to slicks. Although he lost a place or two in doing so, he soon became the fastest man on the track, and scythed his way through the field into fourth place in what is turning out to be a memorable final race for him. Suddenly everyone notices that he’s gaining on Alonso at around a second a lap, and looks destined to catch him before the chequered flag. The fate of the championship is in his hands – if he manages to overtake Alonso, he will hand the title to Vettel, his German compatriot, but in doing so he will prevent the title from going to Ferrari, the team where he had most of his success. Who will he favour? The answer is nobody, but being the racer that he is, he can’t allow himself to miss the opportunity of passing Alonso. Alonso is relatively helpless, as Mercedes is just too fast in a straight line, making a DRS-assisted pass going into turn 4 on the final lap. Once the pass is done, Alonso throws the kitchen sink at taking it back, but doesn’t have the tyres to do so and crosses the finishing line in fourth place.
The final result is Hamilton – Webber – Schumacher – Alonso – Räikkönen – Button – Massa – Hülkenberg – Pérez – Maldonado. Vettel takes the championship despite having retired from the race, and all thanks to Michael Schumacher, who bows out with a podium. Hamilton, who is taking his place at Mercedes, leaves McLaren with a second consecutive win. Ferrari miss out once again, also losing third place in the constructors’ championship to McLaren by a single point.
The less intelligent observers say anyone could do it in that car.
