Now that was a race. Sebastian Vettel won the Japanese Grand
Prix at the fantastic Suzuka track. No great surprise really given the results
since the summer break, but this wasn’t a walk in the park for the German. Too
many people subscribe to the view that Vettel wins because of the car or that
he is just strolling to victory.
The last time he was so dominant and scored 11 wins on the
way to the world title was in 2011, but if you look back at that season, so
many victories were actually close run things. He did what he needed to do to
win.
Admittedly some of the last few races have resulted in
crushing dominance. However, in Japan he demonstrated he doesn’t need to lead
from the very first lap to win. In fact he can drop down the order, have a
quite scrappy first half of the race before reaching into his reserves and
flying back into contention.
This is why he is about to become a four time champion. His
strategy was perfect and he executed it brilliantly. Away from the line, both
he and his pole sitting team mate Mark Webber were slow away from the line
allowing Romain Grosjean into the lead from fourth on the grid.
Vettel lay in third and was told to play the waiting game.
During the first round of stops it looked like all three were opting for a
three stop strategy, but in the end only Webber went ahead with that call. It
was the second and final stops for Vettel and Grosjean which were really
crucial.
When Grosjean pitted for a second time, Vettel was able to
go much further, another eight laps. His tyres were much fresher and although
he exited behind the Lotus he was soon ahead on lap 41. Webber then pitted from
the lead to go on to the medium compound, the faster option tyre in Japan. With
10 laps to go he was more than capable of making inroads into Vettel’s lead.
But first there was Grosjean to deal with, and although he
closed quickly, Grosjean is quickly maturing into a fine driver now. He was
able to hold back the Australian for several laps, denying the race a
grandstand finish but resulting in Vettel’s ninth win of the year.
It was a great victory which owed much to his tyre
conservation skills. Webber said afterwards he reckoned he could have worked
the same strategy although Red Bull deny this saying he stopped too early for
his first stop after running out of grip to make a two stop work.
Webber may still have won, but whereas Vettel charged up to
Grosjean and passed him almost immediately, it took Webber too long and that
was the end of the fight for victory.
Vettel has been so impressive this year. This late season
dominance could make us forget just how close it all was in the first half of
2013 and how he had to grind out results. He was always there. Now he has the
car and tyres to fully exploit his pace, he’s shown just how good he really is
yet again. The title will surely be clinched in India in two weeks time.
Grosjean is Lotus’
future
Romain Grosjean produced another fine performance with third
place as he steps up to his new status as Lotus’ leading man for 2014. Well
nevermind next year, he’s been the lead driver for the last few races. Despite
circumstances playing against him in a few races, he has been the Lotus pace setter,
especially in qualifying, and really he was the only driver to be able to
challenge the Red Bull’s this weekend. He was able to lead the race confidently and never looked troubled while out in front.
He has finally managed to harness his speed with a maturity
to look at the overall picture and not just a single moment which leads him to
get flustered and make mistakes. That aspect looks to be disappearing. He could
well have won in Japan, but the pace wasn’t quite there, especially after he
pitted to cover Webber at the first stops to maintain track position when he
probably could have carried on longer and match Vettel’s longer runs.
I think the win is just a matter of time and Grosjean is
beginning to prove that despite Kimi Raikkonen’s consistency and race
winning performances, this team has a driver who is becoming firmly established
amongst the front runners. Even Vettel lauded his recent performances. No
longer is he the talked of about a driver to be wary of going wheel to wheel
with for detrimental reasons. Now he is a driver they have to take seriously in
the fight for victories.
Webber close to a
last gasp victory
It was a close run thing. Webber could have made a two
stopper work, but according to his team, running behind Grosjean meant he had
to pit earlier than was wanted. Even then he still had the pace to challenge
for victory after he made his extra stop, he was charging Grosjean and Vettel
down.
He couldn’t make the pass quickly on the Lotus and the race
was over. However, it was one of his better days this year and will give him
confidence and momentum as we went the last four races of the year.
Webber will want to go out in style and take at least one
victory away from Vettel in the Red Bull steam roller of success. He started
off well with a fantastic pole position, the first time he’d out qualified
Vettel all year. It would be great to see Webber take the fight to Vettel one
more time, if only he could have got past Grosjean just that bit quicker then
sparks would fly.
Here’s hoping he maintains this form as he is the man with
the best opportunity to stop the Vettel victory parade.
Gutierrez joins in
the Sauber renaissance
Finally after weeks of writing that Esteban Gutierrez was
about to do something good, he proves me right. He followed his highly rated
team mate Nico Hulkenberg over the line to claim sixth and seventh places as
Sauber continue their improved form.
Hulkenberg had another eventful race, once again mixing it
with the top guys. He managed to jump the likes of Nico Rosberg and the Ferrari’s
in the first stop to be the first one in line to pass a late stopping Daniel
Ricciardo.
Ricciardo was able to hold them back for several laps allowing
a massive gap to open out to the top three, but Hulkenberg eventually passed
him. However, he could do nothing to stop Fernando Alonso and then later Kimi
coming by to drop him to sixth. It was still a great showing.
Gutierrez matched his team mate’s performance as he gained
seven places from 14th to score his first Formula 1 points. It’s
been coming for a while with the last two races particularly featuring
impressive qualifying. I expect this result to give him more confidence and I
wouldn’t be surprised if he scores a few more points before the year is out.
Meanwhile Sauber are now only 17 points behind the fading Force India’s; sixth
in the constructors is there for the taking which is incredible given their
dreadful first half of the year.
Battles down the
field
Alonso came home in fourth to keep the title race alive for
one more race. He knows the title isn’t worth thinking about now though. He
made an impressive move around the outside of Hulkenberg into turn one and held
Kimi at bay too. But this isn’t what it’s about for Alonso. He also admitted he
needs to improve his qualifying performances as Felipe Massa was ahead on the
grid for the third time in four races.
Massa failed to take advantage of that once again as he took
a drive through penalty for speeding in the pit lane and ended up tenth. This
was after he apparently ignored a team order to let Alonso through. To be fair,
why should he anymore, especially when the title is almost out of reach. Alonso
was able to get by on his own anyway.
Kimi has begun to have a habit of qualifying behind Grosjean
but ending up ahead of him by the end of the race. Not today, he was
comprehensively out qualified and out raced today. Still he did climb up the
field from ninth to fifth, but if he could match Grosjean’s one lap pace you
still believe he might stand a better chance of claiming a victory for Lotus.
Mercedes had a very poor weekend. Lewis Hamilton started
third and looked like he was going to jump both Red Bull’s at the start only to
cut his tyre on Vettel’s front wing and suffer a puncture on the opening lap.
It wrecked the cars floor and he retired soon later.
Rosberg managed to run fourth for a while but a drive
through penalty for an unsafe pit release meant he dropped down the field and
could only recover to eighth. This team are still quick but they are seriously underutilising
their pace. It’s arguable if they could still take on Red Bull in a trouble
free race.
Jenson Button looked impressive in qualifying but a wrong
set up choice meant he wasn’t comfortable in the car during the race and could
only manage ninth. McLaren have obviously written 2013 off a long time ago, but
still ninth just seems wrong for a team like McLaren. Sergio Perez could only
manage 17th after suffering a penalty for an incident with Rosberg.
Toro Rosso and Force India must be looking enviously at
Sauber. Both have dropped pace, although you can see a way back for the Toro
Rosso pair but Force India’s season appears over, which I’m sure will please
the hard to please Paul di Resta.
Williams drivers battled with each other, something Pastor
Maldonado doesn’t want to do, while Jules Bianchi and Geido van der Garde tried
to recreate the 1990 Senna/Prost crash at turn one, but somehow it just seemed
a bit of a pointless accident in their Marussia and Caterham respectively.
On to India then where Vettel can claim his fourth
consecutive world championship. It’s inevitable, but it won’t mean any less, he’s
been superb all year. In a way if he is to win it next race, I hope he puts on
a supreme display and clinches it with a victory. Not an unlikely scenario.
Final Result:
1. Sebastian Vettel - Red Bull
2. Mark Webber - Red Bull
3. Romain Grosjean - Lotus
4. Fernando Alonso - Ferrari
5. Kimi Raikkonen - Lotus
6. Nico Hulkenberg - Sauber
7. Esteban Gutierrez - Sauber
8. Nico Rosberg - Mercedes
9. Jenson Button - McLaren
10. Felipe Massa - Ferrari
11. Paul di Resta - Force India
12. Jean-Eric Vergne - Toro Rosso
13. Daniel Ricciardo - Toro Rosso
14. Adrian Sutil - Force India
15. Sergio Perez - McLaren
16. Pastor Maldonado - Williams
17. Valtteri Bottas - Williams
18. Charles Pic - Caterham
19. Max Chilton - Marussia
R. Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes - Puncture damage
R. Giedo van der Garde - Caterham - Accident
R. Jules Bianchi - Marussia - Accident
all photo's taken from autosport.com
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