Japan is known as the land of the rising sun but today saw the continuation of the rise and rise of Sebastian Vettel. The German extended his love affair with the Suzuka circuit with a dominant victory from pole position, just as he did in 2009. Mark Webber’s second place secured Red Bull's third one-two finish of the season ahead of Ferrari's Fernando Alonso. However both Mclaren’s suffered a disappointing afternoon with Jenson Button in fourth ahead of a despondent Lewis Hamilton. Hamilton was once more hit with gearbox problems despite changing to a new one in the build up to qualifying. His title challenge is hanging by a thread as he is 28 points behind, three ahead of Button, who looks to have run out of steam. Webber, despite finishing second, was able to extend his lead to fourteen points ahead of Vettel and Alonso who are now in joint second place.
“This is our circuit,” said Vettel over the team radio on the slow down lap. How right he is. Red Bull were peerless in qualifying. I, like many others, predicted that the layout of the Suzuka race track would more than suit the RB6 and after the results of practise the only question left to answer seemed to be which of the Red Bull’s would be on pole. However due to the torrential rain on Saturday, qualifying was postponed until Sunday morning for only the second time in six years. It was undoubtedly the correct decision although for those who woke up to watch it at 6am (like me) it was quite an annoyance. Thankfully with the track virtually dry, qualifying was able to finally begin some five hours before the start of the race on Sunday. Vettel, who was quickest in both of Friday's practise sessions, squeezed out team mate Mark Webber by just seven thousandths of a second to take pole. Hamilton qualified a quite brilliant third despite his lack of track time (just eight laps) however this became eighth following a five place grid drop for changing his gearbox. Robert Kubica again showcased his outstanding talents behind the wheel of the Renault, qualifying ahead of Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari while Jenson Button completed the top five. The surprise of qualifying was Felipe Massa who was unable to secure a place in Q3 and would start from twelfth on the grid. Certainly not the ‘number one driver’ performance Ferrari boss Luza di Montezemolo was hoping for.
The race got off to a chaotic opening as Kubica surged ahead of the slow to get away Mark Webber ito snatch second place while in the midfield four cars crashed within a few hundred metres of the start. Vitaly Petrov collided with fellow rookie Nico Hülkenberg, then Felipe Massa cut across the first corner and slammed into Tonio Liuzzi. This was after Virgin driver Lucas di Grassi had a massive shunt on the way to the grid losing it completely at the infamous 130R. The start line incidents brought out the safety car which picked up Vettel who led from Kubica, Webber, Alonso, Button and Hamilton. But the Pole was forced to retire shortly afterwards as his right-rear wheel detached from his car. With Webber now promoted into second place the Red Bull’s began to pull away from Alonso at about a second per lap while behind them Button, who took a gamble by starting on the harder tyre, was beginning to hold up team-mate Hamilton. Behind them was Michael Schumacher, who had stormed past Rubens Barrichello at the restart and was running comfortably in sixth place. It was pleasing to watch Schumacher’s return to form; he seemed to revel around the Suzuka circuit and lapped consistently faster than his teammate Nico Rosberg throughout the race. It is also worth noting Schumacher’s better performances this year have been at the more technical circuits on the F1 calendar – Catalunya, Istanbul, Spa and now at Suzuka, where he has described it as the ‘ultimate challenge’ for the drivers.
Hamilton pitted on lap 23, the leader Vettel on lap 25 along with Alonso, while Webber pitted a lap later thus promoting Button into the lead. Button and the spirited Kamui Kobayashi were the only two drivers who started on the harder tyre and stayed out trying to make the strategy work. Schumacher pitted from sixth and found he’d been jumped by Rosberg, who pitted during the safety car period. The seven time World Champion was clearly a lot faster than Rosberg and was told via the team radio by his engineer Andrew Shovlin “there are no team orders, but Nico knows to be sensible”. Schumacher finally got ahead on lap 48 as Rosberg suffered a similar failure to Kubica and was sent crashing into the barriers. Despite an upturn in performance, Schuey is still not my driver of the day. That awards goes to my tip before the race weekend Kobayashi. And no, I am not biased. Having started on the harder tyre he lived up to his gung-ho reputation in the opening phase of the race disposing of Jaime Alguersuari and Adrian Sutil with bold overtakes at the hairpin. After his manditory pit stop Kobayashi picked up several places in the final thirteen laps to claim seventh. His first target was Alguersuari, again at the hairpin, and although being forced to the outside Kobayashi dazzled his home crowd by barging his way through. He later passed Rubens Barrichello and new team-mate Nick Heidfeld in a spell-binding stint on the softer rubber. Other noteworthy performances included Heidfeld who scored his first points since returning to F1 by finishing eighth while in twelfth Lotus’ Heikki Kovalainen secured the highest placed finish for a new team this season which all but guarantees them the coveted tenth place in the Constructor’s Championship.
On the harder tyres Hamilton began to close in on third place Alonso until he lost third gear with around fifteen laps to go. Button, who was now on fresh soft tyres, quickly passed his team mate to further dampen a miserable weekend for the 2008 World Champion. Fourth and fifth was as good as it got for the Mclaren’s, with Hamilton declaring his chances of winning a second crown are ‘very difficult’. Despite five victories including three one-two finishes, McLaren have had the third fastest car for much of the season. Only at Spain, Turkey and Canada has it been quicker than the Ferrari's and only in Turkey, Canada and Italy than the two Red Bull's. It is clear that both Hamilton and Button have been overdriving the car and Hamilton’s knack of maximising the potential of his car to grind out excellent results seems to be wearing thin. The championship is slipping from Mclaren’s grasp and they are going to have to rely on other results to remain in contention.
At the sharp end Vettel cruised home to victory but was denied the perfect hat trick (Pole Position, Fastest Lap and Race Win) by Webber on the final lap. Vettel is now level on points with Alonso and the result means that, should Red Bull finish one-two in all the remaining races, Webber cannot finish second to his team-mate in all three and still win the championship. It is clear that after outscoring Webber in the last three races, Vettel now has the momentum. And with Alonso regularly picking up podium finishes, Webber will still be anxiously looking over his shoulder at the chasing pack. The 2010 title battles now heads into the unknown of Korea after a superb Japanese Grand Prix and who knows what else will await the title challengers there in just two weeks time.
Japanese GP - Classified Results
1. Vettel (Red Bull) 1h30:27.323
2. Webber (Red Bull) + 0.905
3. Alonso (Ferrari) + 2.721
4. Button (McLaren) + 13.522
5. Hamilton (McLaren) + 39.595
6. Schumacher (Mercedes) + 59.933
7. Kobayashi (Sauber) + 1:04:038
8. Heidfeld (Sauber) + 1:09.648
9. Barrichello (Williams) + 1:10.846
10. Buemi (Toro Rosso) + 1:12.806
11. Alguersuari (Toro Rosso) + 1 lap
12. Kovalainen (Lotus) + 1 lap
13. Trulli (Lotus) + 2 laps
14. Glock (Virgin) + 2 laps
15. Senna (Hispania) + 2 laps
16. Yamamoto (Hispania) + 3 laps
17. Rosberg (Mercedes) + 5 laps
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