Monday Motorsports: Vettel Closes Out History-Making Formula One Season

Sebastian Vettel ended the 2013 Formula One campaign in dominant fashion on Sunday at the season finale in Brazil, scoring a strong victory over his Red Bull Infiniti teammate, Mark Webber, and Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso. Vettel, 26, had already secured his fourth straight World Championship; Alonso was a distant runnerup in the points battle.

The victory was Vettel’s 13th for the season, tying a record held by Michael Schumacher. And it was also Vettel’s ninth victory in a row in the same season, a new Formula One record; Alberto Ascari also won nine grand prix races in a row, but it was over two seasons, the last six races of the 1952 season and the first three in 1953.

The race marked the end of Webber’s Formula One career; he has announced plans to race factory-backed Porsches in sports car endurance events starting next year.

The 2014 Formula One season begins March 16 in Australia.

In other racing news from the weekend:

¦ The Audi drivers Stéphane Ortelli and Laurens Vanthoor were crowned champions of the 2013 Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile GT Series, with their victory in the season finale on Sunday on a street circuit in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Sebastien Loeb and Alvaro Parente, co-drivers in a McLaren MP4 12C, finished fourth on the track, but were elevated to second place in the official posting of the race results after 10-second penalties were assessed the original second and third place finishers.

¦ Andrew Palmer, a 19-year-old from Chicago, planned to return to classes at Pomona College in Claremont, Calif., on Monday much like he has throughout this term. Yet, something is now very different in his life: Palmer is now a world champion.

In a somewhat unlikely outcome, Palmer competed over the weekend in the World Finals of the Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo series, held in Rome. He finished second in the first race of the doubleheader format, won the second race and scored enough points to collect the championship title.

What was so unlikely about that?

For one, the races were held in the rain, conditions in which Palmer said he had little experience, especially compared with some of the other seasoned professionals who qualified for the event.

For another, Palmer took up auto racing only in October. That’s when he won a race in his debut weekend at Virginia International Raceway, in Alton, Va., which qualified him for the World Finals.

“It’s a surreal feeling to be world champion,” said Palmer, who became interested in auto racing through go-karting. “I am not sure the reality has really sunk in just yet.”

He added that returning to his math and economics classes this week was going to be “quite weird.”