He only needed one point from the Japanese GP, but Sebastian Vettel scored 15 with a third placed finish, making him the 2011 Formula 1 champion and the youngest ever double world champion. He now has an unassailable 324 points over closest challenger Jenson Button’s 210, with four races remaining. The McLaren man on form won at Suzuka, his third win this season. Fernando Alonso came in second for Ferrari.
Vettel’s ability to wrap up his title in Japan was never in doubt – he started from pole and was the winner in Suzuka for the past two years. The 24-year old German has won nine times this season out of 15 races so far, and his lowest finish was fourth place in his home race. The fact that he needed only one more point with four races to go underlines his dominance this season – no one can catch the man!
He wasn’t just lying around to do the bare minimum, that’s for certain. Jenson, who was beaten to pole by just 0.009 sec yesterday, made a good start, but Vettel defended the lead strongly, pushing the Brit to the grass. It warranted an investigation, but no penalty was given by the stewards. Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton jumped into second, a position he held until lap 7, when he pitted due to a puncture.
After the first round of stops, Hamilton was fourth behind Alonso. The fast charging Button got closer to Vettel, but only jumped the champ after the second round of stops. Later, a clash between Massa and Hamilton (again!) forced the safety car out of the paddock, but that didn’t affect Button. The next round of stops saw Alonso jump Vettel after the former stayed out longer. After some initial challenge, Vettel wisely settled for third.
Behind them, Mark Webber was fourth, followed by Hamilton and Michael Schumacher, the Mercedes GP Petronas man beating ex teammate Massa, who for some, doesn’t really have what it takes to be a Ferrari driver. Eighth and ninth went to Sauber’s Sergio Perez and Lotus Renault GP’s Vitaly Petrov, making the two-stop strategy work. Nico Rosberg did a good job to take the final point from the last row.
Further back, Team Lotus’ Heikki Kovalainen and Jarno Trulli finished in their usual 18th and 19th positions ahead of the Virgins and HRTs.
Double world champion Vettel is sometimes called “The New Schumacher”. Maybe he isn’t, maybe he’ll be better than Schumi and break the older man’s records. He has time on his side, after all. Congrats Seb!
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Youngest double world champ!!
Lulu can never beat this record.. wahaahhaha
who? sorry, already did not watch F1 for long..
you must not waste your precious time to reply meh
I see more drama and fights between Massa and Hamilton… XD
massive job from TL today where they was in the same lap with jenson and lapped HRT 3 times.
Wow! I didn’t realize that. That’s quite a significant achievement for TL then!
A legend in making
I’ll be back and will be asking mika hakkinen to joint me next year with petronas merc team.
Somebody said that Felipe Massa, does not deserve to be a Ferrari Driver. Well who are you to say that. The Ferrari is not the Best car at the Moment. Not that fast to compete w/ the best times. So, before you start your Criticism about Massa, Look at yourself. Can you drive? I bet, you drive a Stupid ToyotaPrius.
Massa win more races than Lewis in 2008 season where he unlucky miss the world title to Lewis and at that 2008 & 2009 his 2007 WC teammate Kimi is hopeless been overshadowed by his no yet world champion teammate, Felipe Massa if compare to Mclaren and worthless to mention about the Red Bull. and another common issue is 2008 WC Lewis like to hit Massa car too often in many races. Massa is just a bad luck boy.
Felipe had a collision with Hamilton which wasn’t his fault that cause him to entered an unscheduled pit stop to change front wing. that’s why he drop few places….someone should get the facts correct b4 simply pinpointing someone’s weakness.Yeah, i agree with both Luiz and M”sian Salvatore that Massa is a great driver, almost securing WC in the past has it not for pure bad luck.
Wow, I didn’t know Felipe Massa is a Paultan reader!
There are so many knowledgable people in the know who says Massa’s days are numbered. When he got a good car yes he was quick, but now when he’s driving an indifferent car, he becomes erratic. How come Alonso still manage to win races with that car and not him?
Just because you’re not an F1 driver doesn’t mean you don’t have the knowledge to criticise the driver.
What nonsense.
It’s all clear to see he’d been outperformed throughout the year by Alonso. It doesn’t need Vettel to tell that his performance is unworthy to become a Scuderia driver.
He’s there just cuz of connections. Otherwise, Kimi would still be around last year at least
he’s the real deal there… (@_@)
Congratulation to Vettel. You deserved it. My hero for the race would be Nico, who started the race on last row, due to his car problems and did not even start during qualifying. Yet he managed to get 10th position. Ferrari should consider replacing him with Massa, who in my opinion underperformed. If you compare him to his team mate Fenando Alonso, who has exactly the same car, he is way ahead of Massa and outqualified him almost everytime. And Hamilton still have spats with Massa, yet again. He is too aggressive and always end up in trouble. He should try WRC or IRC, like Kimi, where you control your own driving and your fate in the race.
Congrats to Sebastian! He may have won the WC, but Button wins hands down for yummiest F1 girlfriend ever! Mmmmmmmichibata… :)))
Woohooo… Yeaaah!! Now that’s what I’m talking about!! YEAAAAHHHH!!!
Fantastic season. Last year there are critics saying Vettel won the championship by pure luck blabla. This year, Vettel said it right in Australia: “We are who we are.” What better way to show you’re a deserving driver’s champion and constructor’s champion than to win?
And there’s critics saying Vettel can’t overtake, they should rewatch Monza, he overtook Alonso like a real champion would. Job well done, very well done!
But kudos to Button too. I’d say he truly impressed me this year. Last year, he was literally McLaren’s no.2 driver, putting question marks whether his 2009 was down to luck. His drive this year finally shows that he does have the skill and not just relying on his car to win races.
Alonso had become less a crybaby this year. Good for him.
Lewis had the biggest mouth, starting off by calling Red Bull just an energy drink company, got into trouble with stewards, and now he’s humbled down a bit. Good for him.
Webber, unfortunate. Just why can’t he get a good start at all? 3 poles this year, all wasted.