2010 Japanese Grand Prix - Sebastian Strikes Super Suzuka Blow

Sebastian Vettel produced a faultless and dominant display this morning to win the Japanese Grand Prix at a sunny Suzuka.  It was the young German’s second successive victory on the demanding Japanese circuit, and moves him to within 14 points of championship leader, Mark Webber.  What this means now that Vettel, who won his first event since June’s European Grand Prix at Valencia can win the last three races and take the title, no matter what Webber does.

Suzuka was always expected to favour the Red Bulls, and this is exactly what happened, though not quite the dominant pace they showed at Barcelona and the Hungaroring.  With Saturday being completely rained off due to a rainstorm of biblical proportions, qualifying took place at 2am British time this morning, which saw the Red Bulls lock out the front row.  Their dominance was threatened by Renault’s Robert Kubica, who jumped past the slow-starting Webber on the rundown to Turn One.  However, the Pole was out on Lap 3, when his right-rear wheel bizarrely fell off behind the Safety Car.  Investigations seems to hint that the wheel was not done up properly on the grid, so no wonder why Kubica looked bemused when he got out of his car.  His demise was a shame for the race, as he really could have mixed it up with the championship contenders.

The Safety Car was out after some amateurish driving on the first lap which saw five cars eliminated before the race was two corners old.  First, a suspected suspension failure sent Lucas di Grassi’s Virgin Racing careering into the tyres at 130R on the way to the grid.  Seconds after the lights went out, Vitaly Petrov chopped across a slow-starting Nico Hulkenberg without having got a full car length infront of the Williams.  The result saw the Russian pitched into the barriers a mere 200 yards into the 53 lap extraganvanza.  Hulkenberg was forced to park his car with a smashed front suspension and they were joined on the sidelines by Felipe Massa’s Ferrari and Vitantonio Liuzzi’s Force India.  Massa lost his bearings and used the grass on the first corner to try and pass Nico Rosberg.  With no grip on the dirt, the Brazilian skewed across the road and took out an innocent Liuzzi, causing massive damage to the under-pressure Italian’s car.

With Kubica out of the way, Red Bull’s main threat came from the McLaren’s.  Jenson Button had attempted a different tyre strategy, but it didn’t work out as anticipated, due to the option tyre holding out longer than expected.  Button had to settle to 4^th, which now leaves his chances of retaining his championship as very remote.  Having started back in 8^th, after a five-place grid penalty, Lewis Hamilton was charging hard, but a loss of 3^rd gear with his new gearbox.  The Brit could only limp around to a 5^th place finish, which like Button leaves his hopes of winning a second title looking very distant.  The closest and most consistent challenger to the Red Bull’s is Fernando Alonso, who maximised the equipment he had with his Ferrari to finish 3^rd, and stay within 14 points of championship leader Webber.  Despite not being much difference between Vettel and Webber, the Australian was always trailing Vettel by around a tenth of a second.  It is something he will need to reverse in one of the last three races; otherwise he will lose his chance of claiming his maiden championship.

Elsewhere, the main action in the midfield was created by the home boy Kamur Kobayashi.  Kobayashi pulled off five stunning overtaking moves in the race, including clean moves on Adrian Sutil and Rubens Barrichello, to finish an outstanding 7^th.  Sauber recorded only their second double points finish of the season, with Nick Heidfeld finishing an excellent 8^th in only his second race of 2010.  Michael Schumacher had one of his strongest races of his difficult comeback year, finishing 6^th, though he was trailing Rosberg when his team-mate crashed with just six laps to go, another victim of a wheel flying off his car, through no fault of his own.  Barrichello and the Toro Rosso of Sebastian Buemi completed the point’s scorers.  Sutil was another late retirement, victim to a spectacular engine blow-up in 130R which saw the German spin on his own oil.

Three races to go, and Red Bull now have the momentum.  Has Sebastian Vettel delivered a crucial blow to the other championship contenders with his dominant Japanese weekend?  Now F1 heads into the unknown, with a new circuit in Korea the next stop in two weeks time.