Well our adventure out in the far east has now been brought to it's conclusion and all the boxes and crates are being hauled away for the short hop to South Korea. There were some fears here at the blog head-quarters that the race could turn into a simple processional event because overtaking is difficult on a track like Suzuka. That difficulty did come across in the race especially considering when cars on alternate strategies and ageing tyres getting involved in those contending for the podium. It was a race which had intrigue at both ends of the race starting off with a major championship changing event through the first corner.
Elsewhere the Japanese GP reflected some of the trends that we have seen unravel across the season and some localised traditions reappearing on track. At the end we had a not entirely unpredictable result at the front of the grid, but for the rest of the major points scoring positions the results were very popular. Not only at the track in front of the enthusiastic crowd, but through the world of formula one, and more importantly here in the small world of Blog HQ. If I wasn't attempting to maintain a neutral blog perspective there would have been all kinds of jumping and gesticulations at the television. Much in the same way that the majority of the field have been trying to restrain themselves from unleashing towards a certain accident prone Frenchman.
The Race
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| Credit to F1Fanatic.co.uk for the image |
At the start Vettel and Kobayashi made the best of the starts escaping from the field ahead of Webber and Grosjean. A little further back Button was charging up the field, running three wide with Alonso and Raikkonen approaching the first corner, perhaps someone should have reminded Fernando that is was Kimi's Lotus on the outside. The Ferrari edged away from the McLaren but into the Lotus forcing Kimi onto the grass, Fernando later said that he expected Kimi to get out of the throttle at this point. Assuming Raikkonen was going unessecarily give position that easily became a problem for Alonso as the Lotus didn't yield to the Spaniard. There was wing to wheel contact and Fernando suffered an instant rear puncture sending he spinning into the gravel, almost spinning back into the oncoming back of traffic - but out of the race.
While all this was unfolding in turn one, at the top of the screen in the second corner there was more carnage with more spacial awareness failings this time for Romain Grosjean... again, probably now overtaking Maldonado's quantity of accidents. The Lotus was focusing on the Sauber on his outside of the corner and seemed to forget there were other cars involved in the race, in the same part of the track, and drove into the side of Mark Webber spinning him off to the inside. As the group backed up to avoid the collision Senna ran into the back corner of Rosberg's Mercedes knocking the German out of the race. From the melee the safety car was deployed and Senna, Grosjean and Webber pitted for repairs and tyres - the former two receiving penalties for their actions. A 10s stop and go was handed to Grosjean which is something that hasn't been issued in a while to a driver, but Romain has built a habit of binning people on the opening lap.
On the restart Vettel was able to build a gap from Kobayashi in second, the Sauber receiving a lot of attention in the chicane before the drop of the green flag. The second of the Saubers was attempting to make a move round the outside of Kimi Raikkonen through the first two corners, but the Finn wasn't having any of it as per normal easing One-Stop Perez out and off into the run-off space allowing Hamilton's McLaren through. Through the opening lap spins and contact Button was now running 3rd and Massa in fourth, but also worth noting was Kovalainen in 11th just outside the points and Schumacher recovering from a 10 place drop before the race. There was a little period of calm after some of the over-exuberance early on, where all the investigations and penalties were doled out to the villains of the first two corners, as the DRS system was deactivated following the restart.
Things slid back into action down at the hairpin where we saw a Sauber diving down the inside of a McLaren, this time it wasn't Kobayashi in his favourite overtaking spot, but One-Stop Perez catching Hamliton off guard with a brilliant pass. In the early stages Hamliton's pace was not up with the cars around him and came under pressure from the next car in line - Nico Hulkenberg in the Force India. There were also problems in the Mercedes garage where their remaining car had lost all telemetry, something that has become more of an issue, the third car in as many races with data transmission issues. Life was much easier at the front where Vettel was having a very easy drive with a decent gap to Kamui, and Button was slowly drifting back towards the Ferrari of Felipe Massa.
While not too much was going on it was a good time to start the pit stops no-one was coming in too early do confirm they were running a three-stop race, but not too late to rule out the possibility in case plan B was needed. However there were some drivers staying out a little longer, cementing the predominant strategy, which caused problems for those in the top half of the field, mainly caused by the Torro Rosso team. Two pairs of drivers found themselves trapped behind one of each of the STR cars - Kimi and Hulkenberg found themselves trapped behind Vergne; while Kamui and Button were stuck behind Ricciardo. As these drivers were being hampered others benefited, none more so than Felipe Massa who jumped ahead of Kobayashi into 2nd. Eventually the Sauber driver was able to defeat the Australian, naturally using his favourite corner to get the job done and pull out a gap while Button attempted the same feat.
Hamilton also gained from the first round of stops, emerging back ahead of the Sauber that passed him earlier in the race, but Perez was carrying more pace than the McLaren. Sergio came across the Lewis once more into the renamed Kobayashi corner, Hamilton defended catching Perez out a little forcing him to dive to outside to avoid contact. The Sauber slid on the marbles on the outside and ended up facing the barrier sitting in the gravel in retirement. Raikkonen on the other hand was doing a better job of getting past people, first using DRS to dispatch Vergne into the first corner, before catching Heikki's Caterham (which at this point was in the points) on the run towards Spoon. Due to the massive difference in car pace the pass was easy in the end down the inside of the first part of the corner. Further up the grid there were some concerned faces on the McLaren pitwall as Jenson reported a gearbox issue, and after Hamliton's erupted in Singapore, but the problem was traced to some damaged sensors on the rear of the car and not race threatening.
The small flurry of activity had once more settled down once more once the majority of the cars had cycled through their the pit-stops. Vettel had gone and remained gone a long way in the distance from Massa in second, Kamui completed the podium at this point with button in 4th, Raikkonen and Hamliton were contending for 5th. All the way down the field order was being restored and penalties from the opening lap being sorted out - Kovalainen was being shuffled back from the lofty heights of being in the points back towards the rest of the newer teams as the likes of Senna and Grosjean recovered from lowly running positions. Some fluctuation in the relative distances between the main runners up front suggested change was possible as Massa chipped time from Vettel and the same with Button catching Vettel but the differences were minimal.
So we shall wheel ahead to the second round of pit-stops and Hamilton's call to pit came a little earlier than he had planned - just as he started setting strong sector times the team brought him in as they saw a chance to pass Kimi. As long as the stop was close to the 2.5s mark - making it a rather close call, and things got just as close as Lewis left the lane and rejoined the track. Both cars arrived into the first corner two wide with Hamilton on the outside, Kimi fought for the place but had to turn out of the the corner to avoid contact in turn two losing the position to the McLaren. Jenson was in the same situation with his battle with Kobayashi, a good stop could take the position, but it wasn't to be as a little issue on a front wheel delayed the stop and the Sauber held onto third place. Back outside the points something interesting was emerging, Senna on a set of soft tyres was setting an array of fastest laps. This raised the question of who else was going to have a go on the alternate compound to gain speed towards the end of the lap, but only Schumacher on the fringe of making it into the points decided to have a go.
Senna found himself behind the Force India of Paul Di Resta with considerably more pace, and for a while this was the only battle in the entirety of the field, as everyone else had spaced themselves out after the final stops. Bruno struggled to find away past the Scotsman who had enough pace on the main straight to counter the DRS attacks on the main straight. Therefore the Williams driver needed to be a little more inventive, and the move came in the most unlikely of places, after getting a strong run on the exit of Spoon corner Senna went to the outside towards 130R. Luckily Bruno was able to complete the pass before the turn in point to the corner, because running two wide on worn tyres through that bend would likely result in a lot of damage and a visit to the tyre barrier.
As the laps ticked down towards the end of the race two battles were starting to develop, as the fight for the victory was effectively over yesterday and Massa was secured in second. But things were not certain for the final podium finish, as Button was closing methodically on Kamui hoping to steal the place from the local hero at the end of the race. Something that wouldn't go down too well with the crowd. At the opposite end of the points Schumacher was trying to take tenth place away from the Torro Rosso of Ricciardo and the final championship point. It was a tense few laps for both battles especially the duel for third place, as Button eeked closer to the Sauber, it was scary here at blog HQ and conflicted. On the one hand it would have been nice to see last season's bonus points champion do well, but it would have been so much better to see Kamui to hang on to the podium at his first race when fighting for his drive.
Out front Vettel was so far ahead he had already finished by this point, and Massa was able to drive the remaining Ferrari home for an important podium and his first since Korea 2010 continuing a good run of form to save his drive. The battle for the podium went to the line, but Kamui absorbed all the pressure Button could deliver to keep the position and score a fantastic podium position on his home track - if that doesn't resurrect his drive not much else will. Behind Button was Hamilton, benefiting from other strategies and co-operation from Raikkonen to claim 5th ahead of the Finnish driver. More points for Force India delivered by Nico Hulkenberg in 7th, while Maldonado finished 8th as Grosjean starts to claim his title as the Villain of the series. The top ten was rounded out by Webber in 9th recovering from the initial lap spin after being hit by the Lotus, and Ricciardo held off Schumacher to take the final point in tenth place.
The bonus points championship points winners
The Japanese GP has proven to be a great success, with immensely popular results towards the front of the grid, with some strong recovery drives and important career saving performances across the field. But if there is anything more important than keeping your seat are the all important bonus points.
- 25pts - Kamui Kobayashi - A fantastic first podium finish in front of the local crowd
- 18pts - Felipe Massa - Another very important result when his team-mate made a mess of the opening corner
- 15pts - Mark Webber - A strong recovery drive after being binned in turn two and not being allowed to catch the train of cars before the restart
- 12pts - Jenson Button - A very strong start from 8th to 3rd, avoiding the melee and pressuring the Sauber to the end of the race
- 10pts - Sebastien Vettel - Suppose there should be some points for being so dominant
- 8pts - Bruno Senna - Has to have some points for going round the outside of Grosjean in 130R
- 6pts - Lewis Hamilton - A decent drive considering the flaws in the pace of the car, and racing with Kimi through turn one
- 4pts - One-Stop Perez - A great first move on Hamilton on lap 6, would have been more if the second one worked out too
- 2pts - Pastor Maldonado - Scoring points without hitting people in a solid and well behaved race
- 1pt - Daniel Ricciardo - For holding off the charge of Schumacher's Mercedes for the last point
The penalties series
After the Belgian GP where things were quite a lot heated in the first corner and penalties were issued across the weekend things were calmer and more well behaved, however that run ended this weekend and some penalties have been issued as follows.
- Romain Grosjean - 10s Stop and Go Penalty - For hitting Webber in the second corner
- Bruno Senna - Drive through penalty - For hitting Rosberg in the melee
- Vitaly Petrov - Drive through penalty - For ignoring blue flags at some point during the race
The penalty points series
Where the stewards didn't take action against the drivers or other entities there is always this championship to take care of things. Today there is only one addition to things and it really only adds further insult to rather disastrous afternoon for Romain Grosjean. Being handed a penalty point for pulling the car into retirement without there actually being a problem with it.
Looking forward to Korea
Sadly we do have to drive away from Japan and the traditional undulating sweepers and legendary curves of Sukuka, but the calendar moves on at a relentless pace. In less than a week the first practice session will be underway in South Korea, at an event which is at risk of losing it's place on the calendar for future seasons. Initial plans claimed a whole city of resorts and attractions would spring up around the track, but in the two years the series has visited no progress has been made. Some of the track still looked like a building site in the second running of the event.
As a track it is another Tilke effort and is a lap of two distinct phases, one designed to challenge the cars and be enjoyable to drive, and the other half only existing to allow passing and encourage some overtaking. The result is a that neither phase works particularly well and some elements are just appalling and badly suited to high power open wheel racing. But some interesting weather in it's début race rectified the flaws in the layout. Some of the track that has been engineered to reflect a street environment that was never actually built can prove difficult to remove stricken cars as shown by Schumacher's crash last season opening the door for more safety car interventions. So while on the surface Korea can seem like an uneventful race, but there are chances for more unpredictability and entertainment, so until then this is farewell from me here at blog HQ.
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