Sebastian Vettel has won his second Japanese GP in a row with a commanding drive from pole position. Teammate Mark Webber completed a 1-2 finish for Red Bull and extended his championship lead over Fernando Alonso, who finished third today. Webber now has 220 points, 14 ahead of Vettel and Alonso at 206 each with three races to go.
McLaren fell further in both championships as Jenson Button finished fourth (189 points) while Lewis Hamilton (192 points), who suffered a gearbox problem (he lost third gear), ended up fifth. Michael Schumacher had a good day at the office at sixth and Kamui Kobayashi was seventh. The daredevil Japanese driver overtook so many cars that we lost count – he’s my man of the match. The top ten was rounded off by Nick Heidfeld (Sauber), Rubens Barrichello (Williams) and Seb Buemi of Toro Rosso.
It was an exciting race, and we didn’t have to wait too long for drama. Even before the start, Virgin’s Lucas di Grassi had a big crash at the famous 130R high speed corner and didn’t make the grid. When the red lights finally went off, Renault’s Vitaly Petrov cut in too early after “passing” Nico Hulkenberg and was slammed into the wall. Both men were out before Turn 1, which saw Felipe Massa crash into Force India’s Tonio Liuzzi. Five cars out already!
The safety car was called into action, and something bizarre happened behind the Gullwing. Robert Kubica, who started from third after Hamilton was demoted five spots for a gearbox change, had split the Red Bulls and was looking good in second. However, his right rear wheel mysteriously disappeared when they were cruising and he was out.
So it was business as usual at the front – Red Bulls leading Alonso and Hamilton, with Button on an alternate tyre strategy. Using the hard tyres for a long stint didn’t really pay off for Jenson as he didn’t really have the pace to stick with the leaders. Neither did the on form Alonso, who drove a quiet race.
Much of the action was in the midfield. Michael Schumacher looked really hungry and had a good duel with teammate Rosberg, who pitted early in the race. The younger man wasn’t in a mood to give way though, holding on until five laps before the finish, when he crashed out in the S bends.
Kobayashi was clearly happy to be home. He overtook Alguersuari and Sutil in the same corner before pitting. Falling behind the same cars, he took the Toro Rosso again (banging wheels in the process) before gaining another place thanks to Sutil’s blown engine. He then did the trick again on Barrichello and teammate Heidfeld for seventh, much to the delight of the home crowd. Drivers getting too soft? Team bosses should feed them with whatever Kamui is eating!
In the dying seconds, cheeky Mark Webber pulled out the race’s fastest lap, denying Vettel bragging rights of a full house. Eight drivers out, lots of action, three more races to go. Next up is the inaugural Korean GP two weeks from now.
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go kobayashi! we asian proud of u.
Great racing from Kamui. From P14 to P7 with several awesome overtaking.
kobayshing potong x ingat. from outside and inside also got
but malaysian(nascar/rally lover so say they said) said it boring……which so much excitement i don know which part is boring… sori just wanna comment at top….little disappointed ferrari not winning
Danny… any news from Sepang?… Moto GP?
Rossi won, but third was enough to see Jorge Lorenzo crowned as 2010 champion. We weren’t there to watch it though
Damn good rossi !!! He was in 11th place for the first lap but manage to win. Rossi win is 46th for yamaha. Belive it or not 46 is his bike number. 4 + 6 = 10. And it happen in 10.10.10.
nice shot!hahah
I need someone to make a mv for all overtaking maneuvers made by Kamui for this race :D
Kobayashi is certainly “THE” man….imagine what he can do if he’s in Ferrari/RBR/Mclaren….though they won’t pay him much since he’d be wrecking many cars along with his potentially many race wins :)
man i mssed the race as i was in sepang for moto gp. What an astonishing race by koyabashi, he is perhaps the best f1 driver from asia/japan already! Told ya i can sense he is senna of the east (aryton senna though)
no writeup about lotus racing??
lotus done nothing as usual… or maybe kobayashi is too much this time
You were wrong. Lotus finished at 12 n 13 which is their best result yet! But i guess Koyabashi performance in his home race overshadowed it.
Btw on the other front our local boys did well in MotoGP as well. Zulfahmi Khairuddin of team SIC Air asia finished 16th from 23 in 125cc which is slighty disappointing as he is 1 position away from points, while local wildcard rider Zulfahmi Khairuddin did impressive by finishing 22th from 32 in Moto2 race.
Not a bad day for motorsports today :)
Lotus Racing did their best result since Melbourne. Heikki 12th and Jarno 13th. Typical best newcomer.
1 5 Sebastian Vettel RBR-Renault 53 1:30:27.323
2 6 Mark Webber RBR-Renault 53 +0.9 secs
3 8 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 53 +2.7 secs
4 1 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 53 +13.5 secs
5 2 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 53 +39.5 secs
6 3 Michael Schumacher Mercedes GP 53 +59.9 secs
7 23 Kamui Kobayashi BMW Sauber-Ferrari 53 +64.0 secs
8 22 Nick Heidfeld BMW Sauber-Ferrari 53 +69.6 secs
9 9 Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 53 +70.8 secs
10 16 Sebastien Buemi STR-Ferrari 53 +72.8 secs
11 17 Jaime Alguersuari STR-Ferrari 52 +1 Lap
12 19 Heikki Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth 52 +1 Lap
13 18 Jarno Trulli Lotus-Cosworth 51 +2 Laps
14 24 Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth 51 +2 Laps
15 21 Bruno Senna HRT-Cosworth 51 +2 Laps
16 20 Sakon Yamamoto HRT-Cosworth 50 +3 Laps
17 4 Nico Rosberg Mercedes GP 47 +6 Laps
Ret 14 Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 44 Oil leak
Ret 11 Robert Kubica Renault 2 Mechanical
Ret 10 Nico Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth 0 Accident
Ret 7 Felipe Massa Ferrari 0 Accident
Ret 12 Vitaly Petrov Renault 0 Accident
Ret 15 Vitantonio Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes 0 Accident
DNS 25 Lucas di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth 0 Accident
Note – Hamilton qualified third, but dropped five places due to a gearbox change.
i think even paul tan has given up talking about lotus racing, or should i say team lotus? wait a minute…………..
LEEEEEEEEEEEEEROY JENKINS!!! says kobayashi :)
F1 boring la…
If you say it boring,better don’t post any comment on it. Go rempit somewhere else.LOL
Yes, it’s really boring.
No more fuel strategy, very very less overtaking as all the cars are heavily loaded with fuel make overtaking so difficult. You can predict to race result even after the qualifying completed….then do you able to say it’s still interesting for F1……
Thumb down to FIA to make the race damn boring…….
Worth nothing that Lotus got their highest finishes of the season and indeed of all the newcomers by finishing 12th and 13th, thus more or less cementing their 10th position in the constructors, which is worth a lot of money. With a Renault engine and a Red Bull rear end(albeit the 2009-spec rear), I’d say they stand a chance of getting up to the midfield or even scoring some points next year.
eh? where got lights turning green? it was red and the race is a go when it is extinguished.
You’re right. Maybe I was thinking of traffic light drag racing at that time!
weird enough Kubica and Nico lost their wheelnut on that race.