The Japanese Grand Prix was a bit of a thriller, short on out and out action but great for close competition at the top. It culminated in Jenson Button’s third victory of the year as he continues his superb run of form but more importantly resulting in the youngest double Formula 1 world champion in history.
Sebastian Vettel secured his second world championship to become only the 9th person in the sports history to win titles back to back. If there were any doubters about Vettel last year, he’s certainly showed them how good he is this year.
Nine wins so far, another five podiums and twelve pole positions has seen him beat down the opposition, even when he’s had a slight wobble, he’s come back stronger.
In what has been a year of utter dominance Sebastian Vettel took the title with third place in what was actually his second worst result of the year. I’ll not be surprised if he’s slightly disappointed by not taking victory to secure the crown despite his overall achievement, but that’s that kind of driver he is and why he’ll be a force for some time to come.
Vettel may have wanted to win, his team just wanted him to wrap it up with as little fuss as possible. Red Bull admitted to taking a conservative strategy, but it seems no one told Vettel as he swung his car towards Button at the start, shoving him on the grass. After he lost the lead to Button and then second to Alonso’s Ferrari, he continued to fight, this guy needs to win.
Eventually he was told to back off, and he cruised to third place collecting 14 more points than he needed and still only two seconds behind Button. He thanked his team, who have provided him with the best and most consistent car out there, but the way he’s used it has been a joy to behold, and I don’t think anyone else could have done a better job this year.
His first title gave him a new sense of confidence and assurance in his racing that elevated him to a higher level. The other drivers will be wondering how much better he can get now he’s got a second?
Button’s almost perfect weekend
Vettel may have won the war but this battle was Jenson Button’s; he’s driven under the radar for a lot of the season despite two wins and a run of podium finishes that have left him second in the championship justifying McLaren rewarding him with a new shiny contract.
Vettel’s dominance this year, and controversy surrounding Lewis Hamilton’s patchy season have combined to take attention away from Button but there was no ignoring him here as he stormed to a fantastic win.
Button was almost perfect in Japan. He topped all the practice sessions, but missed out on pole to the champion by just 0.009. However, he was confident he had the speed that could take him past Vettel.
‘Didn’t you see me at the start’? Button had a great getaway but was harshly told by Vettel that wasn’t going to happen. Vettel wanted to win in style, but what kind of style he didn’t say? Vettel claimed he hadn’t seen Button, but the McLaren already had its front wheel’s alongside, before being forced to back off as he hit the grass.
It allowed Hamilton into second but Jenson was back past by lap eight as Lewis struggled with a right rear puncture. From here on Button bided his time and played a nicely controlled game, knowing when to push.
It was the second round of pit stops that won it for Jenson. Red Bull was struggling to maintain their tyres, so ten laps after Vettel had first pitted he was in again. Jenson pushed for all it was worth, capitalising on the Red Bull driver coming out in traffic. Usually fresher tyres would maintain your track position, but Button was awesome, his pit stop equally so, and he came out a second ahead. The race was his?
It looked that way for a long time, not even a small safety car period on lap 24 could trouble him, until after the final round of pit stops Fernando Alonso had slipped into second place. Jenson must have been conserving fuel as Alonso suddenly ripped into his lead, with every lap the Ferrari was getting closer. But Jenson has a wise head on his shoulders and kept up his pace to get the fuel and tyres where he wanted them.
Lap 51, Alonso gets to within a second. Lap 52 Button sets fastest lap, crushing the challenge. Lap 53 Button wins his third race of the year. He stopped almost immediately, his car nearly out of fuel but it was another hugely impressive display that behind Vettel has surely made him driver of the year.
Perez shines
Sergio Perez had a star race for Sauber. He’s recently had a test with Ferrari in one of their old 2009 cars, and the Mexican is one that the Scuderia are keeping an eye on for the future.
Performances like this, show him to be an intelligent racer, he’s often ended up in good positions by making his strategy work well for him, it has been notable how many times it’s worked for him.
Starting from 17th on the grid he made a good start and used his fresh tyres effectively, battling past the Force India’s and Renault’s and ending up five places ahead of his team mate Kamui Kobayashi who had started ten ahead. He’s eclipsing his Japanese team mate now, and the rumours he’ll go to Ferrari in place of Massa at some point aren’t going away; a driver for the future?
Lewis wants better mirrors, Massa gets angry… again
Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa were at it again. Hamilton was second at the start, but a puncture dropped him to fourth leaving him directly ahead of Massa, who had earlier been running ahead of Alonso after out qualifying him, but in another chip to his confidence, made it very easy for his team mate to slip by.
Hamilton on lap 22 went through the flat out 130R slowly, his tyres beginning to suffer again. Massa had no choice but to make a move around the outside into the final chicane. Hamilton drifted to the left on to the racing line, their wheels interlocked, a bit of wing flicked up, a puff of smoke, a split second thought of massive shunt, but they were lucky.
Hamilton later said he could see nothing in his mirrors and had no idea Massa was even there. Massa said the FIA should investigate Hamilton’s driving. Perhaps they should just give him bigger mirrors? It was a racing incident, but this animosity, especially on Massa’s part continues to grow.
However it does seem odd that a driver as world class as Lewis doesn’t seem to know where other cars are around him, especially when you include his qualifying clash with Webber and Schumacher too. Maybe the team should share the blame, they should be feeding him information, but it again raises more questions that shouldn’t need to be asked for a driver as good as him.
Massa got ahead of him through the pit stops, but Hamilton surged past him on lap 37 aided by DRS into turn 1 to finish up in fifth, while Massa later fell to seventh. Hamilton can’t avoid incidents, but at least he’s still making the best of it. Once something happens to Massa, it’s difficult to see him make a recovery.
Rest of the top ten
Alonso drove a strong if quiet race, he just seemed to sit there and let it come his way. He took advantage of Hamilton’s puncture to move into third, stayed out five laps longer than Vettel who had to switch to the medium compound for his final stint, whereas Alonso utilised his final set of softs to stay out five laps longer before his switch and grab second place.
He fought off a determined Vettel immediately afterwards and started to close down Button. He finished within a second and was justifiably happy with a podium in a car that has long since ceased to be developed; a strong drive in a season of plenty but for little reward.
Mark Webber backed up his team mate to finish fourth. Starting sixth, he’d pitted early at the second round of pit stops to jump ahead of Hamilton and Massa, from then he covered the top but was told not to challenge, his team mate being his next target.
Michael Schumacher earned a little tap from Webber just before the safety car came out, in fact it contributed to its deployment. Webber having pitted caught Schumacher on old tyres and tried to slip through, but unsighted he clipped the back of the Mercedes nudging it wide, although it caused little significant drama to their races.
Schumacher had another productive weekend claiming 6th place after what was actually quite a lonely race for him. He was immediately up to 7th at the start from 8th on the grid, and he just drove his own race.
He conserved his tyres well, pitting after the front runners at the second round of pit stops behind the safety car which enabled them to last just that bit longer and saw him lead the race for several laps as those in front of him pitted in the third round. His pace had been strong and consistent though and he was able to slot into the gap between Hamilton and Massa so they could leave each other alone for the rest of the day.
On fresher tyres he might have challenged Hamilton, but the medium compound didn’t work as well as the softs and he was left to hold off Massa for sixth.
Ninth was Vitaly Petrov, scoring a few points for Renault with a two stop strategy. Nico Rosberg had had a terrible qualifying with Hydraulics problems, but was able to power through from 23rd on the grid to grab the final point in what was a good drive through the pack.
Other notables were Adrian Sutil who finished 11th but raced hard and made a proper ballsy overtake into 130R which required nerves of steel, but resulted in not much. Also disappointment for Kamui Kobayashi who had done much to rouse the interest of the Japanese fans with 7th on the grid but his anti-stall kicked in at the start and he fell back, never being able to mount a significant challenge.
However, Jenson Button was able to lift the Japanese fans, a Japanese girlfriend, his helmet sporting their flag and messages of hope for the victims of the tsunami earlier this year; if Kamui couldn’t score points, they left happy with a win for Jenson Button, who really is the coming man at the moment.
But as we head to Korea in a week’s time, there’s only one number one; Sebastian Vettel is looking to celebrate and for this driver only victory will do.
all pictures from autosport.com
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