Sebastian Vettel took a dominant victory at the Japanese Grand Prix, with his team-mate Mark Webber settling for second to complete a perfect weekend for Red Bull Racing Team. It was a solid incident-free performance for Vettel who bounce back in the championship after few disappointing results, catching Alonso in the title chase in the 2nd spot just 14 points off championship leader Webber with just three races remaining. Best of the Rest, Fernando Alonso finished 3rd and Mclaren drivers Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton in 4rth and 5th position without threatening RedBull’s dominance. Many believe that McLaren's off the pace performance might take them out of the title performance as RedBulls appear to find again their racing domination. Vettel was in control of the Grand Prix since the qualifying session which was postponed few hours before the race due to heavy downpours. After the race he commented:
"This circuit is very special - the fans are incredible here and to get my second win in Suzuka is fantastic. It was a nice Sunday; to have qualifying and the race in one day is a unique experience and to finish top in both is great. Thanks to the team, to those here and also back in the UK - they all work very, very hard. We had some small upgrades here and they were a step forward. Our car loves this type of circuit and I'm very happy and very proud of today's result."
The race had quite few incidents most of them during the start of the rare when Vitaly Petrov got away brilliantly but in his enthusiasm clipped Nico Hulkenberg's Williams and speared into the barrier before the first corner. As a result the Russian earned a 5-grid positions penalty for the forthcoming Korean Grand Prix. Felipe Massa then attempted a wild move on Nico Rosberg into turn one, taking to the grass on the inside to trying to make a desperate pass. Yet his moved resulted to a sideway spin across turn one, mopping up Tonio Liuzzi's Force India in the process and putting them out on the spot after a big impact.
The resulted safety car period found Vettel in the lead and Robert Kubica in a 2nd position after another slow start from Mark Webber. However, Kubica's brilliance in qualifying and impressive start proved worthless as his right rear wheel came off at slow speed behind the safety car. That handed the Red Bulls a one-two lead that they never came close to losing.
Hamilton starting from 8th after his gearbox change 5-grid positions, had another impressive start and almost to overtake Alonso for 3rd. However the 2008 champion took another blow when he lost third gear and as a result Button made a pass to 4rth. Hamilton managed to finish the race 5th ahead of M. Schumacher by staying above third gear, but it cost huge amounts of time in the slow corners and he finished 26 seconds behind his team-mate. Schumacher was the winner of another battle between teammates while Nico Rosberg's wheel came off at high speed, slamming the Mercedes into the barriers. Kobayashi finished a seventh after another kamikaze drive through the field that saw him successfully complete four overtaking manoeuvres at the hairpin. Nick Heidfeld made a solid return to the points in the second Sauber, with Rubens Barrichello and Sebastien Buemi rounding out the top ten.
Heikki Kovalainen finished 12th, a brilliant result for Lotus as it gives it a new highest finish among the new teams in the grid espoecially the current period when Lotus experiences lot of naming issues. Meanwhile, Virgin had a dismal day after Lucas di Grassi spun off at the 130R on the way to the grid and did not make the start.
By Laurence Edmondson
