Vettel cuts title lead as Alonso spins

The Japanese Grand Prix may well be looked at as the pivotal moment in this seasons championship chase. Sebastian Vettel secured his third victory of the year as Fernando Alonso spun off at the first corner to reduce the deficit to a mere four points.

Vettel streaked away from a dominant pole position to be well clear of anyone into the first corner, championship leader Alonso was not so lucky. Having started from 6^th after being delayed by yellow flags in qualifying after Kimi Raikkonen spun his Lotus, it was Kimi again who proved to be the undoing of the Ferrari driver in the race.

Away from the grid, Kimi was on the outside heading into turn 1, Alonso perhaps unaware of where exactly the Lotus was squeezed him towards the grass, a couple of wheels on the turf then a slight touch of the front wing end plate on the Ferrari was all it took for a puncture to spin Alonso round and into retirement. 

Perhaps the Spaniard could have given Kimi slightly more room as he wasn’t exactly being crowded himself, but it was just one of those things. The retirement that Alonso said he had in hand has now disappeared; he can’t afford to get involved in anymore incidents if he’s to take a third world title.

The easiest way of improving those odds is if Ferrari can get some decent updates on their car in the final five races because Red Bull and McLaren are way off in the distance right now. His retirement means he needs to win again, at the moment that doesn’t look likely without a bit of luck.

Vettel’s Red Bull was utterly dominant today, he was untouchable and was setting fastest laps for fun by the end of it as he managed a 20 second lead. No one was really able to live with him as he reeled off the laps.

I think Vettel will be feeling confident about retaining his title now. Judging from today he has the fastest car although it’s probably more like equal fastest with McLaren and this track just suited the Red Bull.

But of the four drivers in those cars, he’s in the best position to take advantage of the slowing Ferrari’s. It didn’t look likely a few races ago, but Vettel can actually do this.

Another Grosjean start accident

Behind Vettel there was chaos at the start. Kamui Kobayashi in the Sauber had started third but nipped ahead of Mark Webber to slot in second, Webber was calmly filing into third place when another attack of the crazies from Romain Grosjean sent him spinning around and dislodging the Lotus’ front wing.

After his one race ban, you’d think Grosjean might be tempted to play it safe for a few races and at least give people a chance to forget his past indiscretions, but apparently not.

He had Sergio Perez alongside him into the first corner and just seemed to be fully concentrating on him while forgetting there were another 22 cars around him. Webber later branded him a ‘nutcase’, ‘embarrassing’ and thinks he might ‘need another holiday’.

This incident earned him a 10 second stop go penalty, and also resulted in Nico Rosberg and Bruno Senna coming together while taking avoiding action, although Senna got a drive through for his troubles. Webber managed a great drive to effectively switch to a one stop strategy and climb his way back up to 9^th.

I think Grosjean is a good fast driver, when he gets round the first lap he often has produced solid performances, but he has to curb his impetuousness if he wants to maintain a future in Formula 1.

Deserved podiums for Massa and Kobayashi

Felipe Massa at least gave Ferrari something to cheer about with second place, his first podium for nearly two years. It was a strong drive. He took advantage of the first corner mayhem to move up from tenth to fourth. He stayed near to Kobayashi and Jenson Button and when they pitted on laps 15 

and 14 respectively he was able to stay out until lap 18.

While they got held up in traffic Massa set some very competitive lap times and emerged well ahead. After that he held on to Vettel for a while but didn’t have the outright pace but was far enough ahead not to be troubled from behind.

It was a timely result for Massa, the rumours had been growing louder about possible replacements, so if he can maintain this form, they’ll be no reason why he can’t secure another year at Ferrari.

The loudest cheer of the day went to Kamui Kobayashi who grabbed his chance and took his first podium with a great third place. The atmosphere at the track sounded amazing as the Japanese fans chanted his name.

While his McLaren bound team mate Sergio Perez was falling off the track into retirement, perhaps trying a bit too hard to impress, Kobayashi remained calm and kept it all together and really earned this result.

He might have lost out to Massa in the stops but he did a great job to hold off a charging Jenson Button at the end. As the McLaren inched ever closer, Kamui did just enough with an extra tenth here and there to secure a great podium.

He is another one who has rumours swirling around him that he’s going to lose his drive, so this will do him a lot of good.

McLaren off day

McLaren had an off day after recent performances. They never looked like really challenging the Red Bulls. Perhaps if Button hadn’t suffered a five place grid demotion from 3^rd for a gearbox change Vettel might have been given a tougher challenge, but it’s unlikely.

Button did a good avoiding job to end up in 3^rd at the start but dropped down after the first round of pit stops and couldn’t quite get on terms with Kobayashi.

Lewis Hamilton had a quiet day on the track apart from when exiting the pits he emerged just ahead of Kimi, and just managed to hold the inside line to keep the Lotus behind. At the very least he took 10 points out of Alonso and now is just 42 behind with five races to go. But fifths will not do again, Lewis has got to win.

Rest of the top 10

Kimi Raikkonen took 6^th place, he didn’t really seem to have the speed today, the Lotus team haven’t managed to make their passive F-duct device work properly and this seems to have held them back somewhat in other areas of development. He still lies third in the championship though just 37 behind so he’s still in it. But if he wins it’ll be the stealthiest title win ever.

Nico Hulkenberg has been touted as a replacement for Massa at Ferrari. This drive will have done him some good, as he rose from 15^th to 7^th at the flag and for a large part of the race was hounding Hamilton. His team mate did less well falling a place from 12^th to 13^th.

Finally! Pastor Maldonado got some more points today, the first time he’s had any since his win in Spain. It was a mature drive, avoiding the first lap chaos to run in the top 10 pretty much the whole race, so well done Pastor for his 8^th place.

Daniel Ricciardo picked up the final point, another who ran in the top 10 most of the day after starting 14^th. He did well to stay ahead of a charging Michael Schumacher though, who on fresher softer tyres was all over him but didn’t quite have the straight line speed to get passed.

Apparently he’s retiring again, but Schumacher had a fine drive to 11^th after his 23^rd grid slot with a number of solid moves, especially one on Paul di Resta into turn 1. Whatever anyone says, he can still race with the best of them.

The circus moves onto South Korea next week, and although today was the most exciting race in the world, it did make everything extra close. It’s all to play for now.

all photo's taken from autosport.com