Well my initial plan of getting up at the middle of dawn to catch the live race rather fell apart at the seams when I first forced open my eyes to see that it was 7:15, a long way off the 6am actual start point for which the alarm was set. Although I'm starting to think there may have been some minor flaw in that plan, never the less I caught the race on the good old iPlayer before being rather frightened at my appearance on the politics show and heading out for the only form of social interaction. Not accounting for the world of theatrical wonder I attend also.
But the frivolities of the day aside there was a race taking place although it does seem so long ago now probably because it was a long time ago. There was the inevitable conclusion of the championship but you didn't really need to see the race to expect that to happen. The German Bloke was going to come away from Japan with the single point he needed and some extras just to sweeten the deal. However there was a small amount of change sailing in the Japanese winds because neither of the first two cars that crossed the line were blue or contained the German. Which in a season of complete and utter dominance the bottom step of the podium could be seen as a very conservative way of bringing the title back once more.
That obviously wasn't the only story of the race and here is how the 53 laps of Suzuka played out.
The Race
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| Credit to F1Fanatic.co.uk for the image |
At the start button made the strong early jump, but Vettel pulled across forcing the McLaren onto the grass as Jenson had to get out of the throttle to avoid an accident. This handed the opportunity to Lewis who used the extra momentum to steal second position from his team-mate. In a complete contrasting fortunes the local man Kamui Kobayashi had a poor start losing places to both Force Indias and the Renault Squadron. Losing more spots avoiding Senna as he ran wide out of turn two.
The opening laps were unusually clean and damage free - a long way shy of the madness we've seen in earlier events and all the drivers had settled into their positions - with the exception of Rosberg who was making up for a technical problem in qualifying. I'm not to sure whether it was the sleep deprivation still pickling my brain cells but not much seemed to happen in the first ten laps.
Change however was on the horizon, Hamilton dropped back in to the clutches of Button in 3rd while Vettel remained out front but not too far compared to normal. Lewis picked up a slide on the way into Spoon corner to concede the position falling further back towards Alonso in 4th as a result of a rear puncture. Luckily it wasn't to far ouside the pit window so the overall damage done to the race was limited. Only having three corners to contend with before returning home.
On the next lap the pit window had opened with the first volunteer for new rubber being the leader Sebastien Vettel, handing the lead to Jenson. Once all the opening stops had cycled through the positions had returned and reset with Vettel leading Button, Alonso, Hamilton, Massa and Webber. Division one had once again separated themselves from the rest of the grid - with Schumacher just in tow behind them several seconds back. Teams further down the grid were running longer on tyres, Williams and Perez were still on their opening set of tyres to compensate for a grid position.
Tyre degradation was hitting Red Bull harder then normal this weekend as both cars we in for their second stops by lap 20. In order to cover the advantage of newer tyres Button and Alonso had to pit, this worked out rather well for Button as he ended up with the lead - something on balance is a nice change from the form of the past few races where the same blue car has been out front for a rather significant proportion of the laps. But there was a degree of conservatism in the Red Bull strategy knowing there was only one point needed to claim the title.
Elsewhere Japanese GP tradition was re-occurring from last year, starting off with wheels having a difficulty stayin on race cars, in 2010 Kubica and Rosberg both lost wheels and this year burden was handed to Sebastien Buemi whose front wheel parted company. Parking the three wheeled car up on the entrance to the essess after it wasn't fitted properly following his pit stop. Then Kobayashi corner came into use once more as the man himself passed the remaining Torro Rosso on the exit, a move One-stop Perez then managed to repeat a couple laps later.
Battle resumed further up the field when increasing angry rivals Hamilton and Massa found themselves on the same piece of racetrack once again, and once again Hamilton doesn't really recognise the size or shape of the McLaren her is driving. Not really understanding the space it occupied as he drifted wider into the side of Felipe's car on the entrance to the Casio Triangle. Dislodging Massa's endplate casting it into the middle of the breaking zone. Now it lay there waiting on the tarmac for several laps, the red carbon fibre glinting in the sunlight. No-one wanted to run out an collect it, being on the exit of 130R I don't blame them -the only solution was to call out the safety car - and so it was done. There was also an amount of debris in turn 7 where Webber clipped the back of Schumacher knocking a little of his wing off too.
Button controlled the restart well if not a little too slowly before running away only into the nearby distance. The entire of division one was running at regular intervals fairly close to each other for several laps. Before tyres again began to fade becoming a problem for Red Bull once more as Vettel pitted first once more this time to switch to the harder compound. Aiming to run to the end of the race, which forced the hand of the other teams in contention in the form of McLaren and Ferrari to match the plan. However switching to the newer tyres sooner didn't help him close on Jenson out front in fact he dropped further away opening a window for Alonso to drop into after his stop, demoting the German bloke down to third.
Further back however Mark Webber was adding a new corner to the collection of places he has passed cars at this year, overtaking Paul Di Resta on the inside of 130R the fastest corner of the track. A feat that was only beaten by the move Adrian Sutil managed on Kobayashi in the same corner from a much tighter turn in line.
In the overall standings however the positions were sealed for the remainder of the race, Button claiming another victory - leading the table in drivers who aren't in a Red Bull who can win races and doing a very solid job. Fernando Alonso finished second proving that Ferrari were are remaining strong and can't be counted out during the race. Vettel finished 3rd picking up more than enough points to claim the title and more silverware to the team garage.Webber finished 4th after both Red Bull drivers were given the call to ease of and conserve their places until the end. Hamilton recovered to 5th after repassing Massa without contact this time, Schumacher also jumped Felipe to claim 6th and the Ferrari driver taking 7th. Division two was won by One-Stop Perez once again using tyre conservation to score points from 17th. While Wing Commander Petrov and Rosberg rounded out the points paying positions.
The Official Bonus Points Championship points winners
With the main championship all done and wrapped up with several races still to be run in Asia and South America the attention turns now to the more important bonus points championship and here are the winners from the Japanese GP.
10pts - One-Stop Perez - for going from the back of the division one grid after techincal dramas in qualifying to win the group at the end of the race using his patented one-stop less than everyone else strategy
8pts - Nico Rosberg - 23rd to 10th deserves some recognition making a lot of the passes towards the end of the race
6pts - Jenson Button - For a strong victory and strong performance across the weekend, beating Vettel on pace resigning them to their conservative strategy
5pts - Adrian Sutil - For making a more risky pass then Webber on a car that defended the position into 130R corner
4pts - Mark Webber - For adding another pass in a high speed corner to his repetoire
3pts - Fernando Alonso - For being rather unimpressive but managing significant speed to catch and pass the Gernan bloke in the pit-stop phase
2pts - Kamui Kobayashi - For making a pass in what I've named as his own corner which was rather nice
1pt - All you can eat Buffets - For matching the concept of food with a challenge to, which pushes my innards to their limits too
The Also Official Penalties Championship
There were investigations against both Vettel and Hamilton but no action was taken against either driver, also an incident where One-Stop Perez and Rosberg ended up two wide in the pit lane was left without a sanction being handed out. So overall there were no official penalties, which does make altering that table a lot easier
The Dubious Dealings Championship
While the officials were a little lapse on the handing out of penalties I of course will be a little less lenient and will deal the following penalty points.
- Lewis Hamilton - For having absolutely no idea what size his car is - the third time in the past four races he has made contact with another car simply by wandering into them or clipping them in the rear wheel. Two of those events have been with Massa who is rather annoyed, haven't heard his comments on today but wouldn't be too pleased.
- Empire Cinemas - The blog doesn't not appreciate being held up by 30 minutes when no-one presses play on the film reel knocking everything out of sequence.
Looking ahead to Korea
Returning back to the track that only just made it's début last year, screwing down the final pieces as the teams were rolling into the paddock. This time we should see a more complete facility with more of the surrounding structures completed, the preview images and plans that were produced before it's inception showed a whole resort and marina to be constructed. This year will see how much of that plan has been built to form the resort that is to surround the circuit.
It should also be a much drier race than last year when the race lasted for around four hours due to rain delays and safety cars for the collisions. As a layout it isn't too inspiring, created in a sort of track design by numbers approach, throw in some long straights into overtaking hairpins and then finish the rest of with a series of corners in an attempt to throw some variation into the mix. However in Korea that attempt didn't work too well - the final corner is a little innovative but the rest is a bit dull, perhaps in dry conditions this time around next week we can see what racing it can produce with the new DRS and KERs systems to apply on the long straights.
Alas live twitter coverage may be missing from that event as it was from this one as a result of time differences and the fact I'll be watching a tape delayed version of the sessions so won't be exactly live myself .Thank you all and until next time, farewell..
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