MOTOR SPORT JAPANESE GRAND PRIX: SEBASTIAN VETTEL launched himself back into the Formula One championship frame with an utterly dominant Japanese Grand Prix victory as once again Brawn GP's Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello failed to threaten the podium positions.
After sliding back down the starting grid in recent races it was again qualifying that was to prove the undoing of both Brawn drivers in Suzuka, though this time it was the chaotic nature of the Saturday session that compromised the race chances of Button and Barrichello.
The session was stopped three times, the red flags coming out twice in session two, first for Toro Rosso’s Jaime Alguersuari and then, more seriously for Toyota’s Timo Glock, the German’s crash serious enough to leave him with a gashed leg and strand him on the sidelines for the race.
McLaren’s Heikki Kovalainen was the last to halt proceedings with a session three crash, but it was a driver who limped his damaged car back to the pit following a brush with the wall that eventually upset the Brawn drivers’ race.
Toro Rosso’s Sebastien Buemi had done well to drag his slower car through to the second qualifying session and pushing hard had registered a good lap to progress to the final session. Pushing too hard next time round, though, he scraped his car along the wall, distributing debris everywhere. The yellow flags came out to signal a hazard but a number of drivers, including Button and Barrichello, failed to heed the warning and scored fastest laps under the caution.
A host of five-place grid penalties were handed down overnight, some for the infringements, others, like Kovalainen requiring penalty incurring gearbox changes, and when the dust had settled, Barrichello was left to start from sixth and Button from a lowly 10th.
Miles ahead, having cleanly claimed his fourth pole position of the year, was Vettel. It wasn’t an opportunity he was going to let slide.
First, though, he would have to fend off the KERS-aided challenge of Lewis Hamilton, third on the grid.
At the start, the McLaren driver got the jump on second-placed Jarno Trulli but Vettel defended robustly and Hamilton was forced to give up the corner.
And that was pretty much that. A brief bunching of the field in a safety car period caused by rookie Alguersuari crashing out at the flat-out 130R corner gave Vettel momentary pause for thought but with the lapped Romain Grosjean providing a bulwark between him and Trulli, who had re-taken second via a quicker second stop than Hamilton, Vettel was always in control.
A couple of ragged-edge laps to broaden the gap to Trulli and the Red Bull Racing driver was home free, coasting past the chequered flag just under five seconds to spare to leave him 16 points behind Button with a maximum of 20 points on offer from the final two rounds.
“What a race!” Vettel exclaimed. “I had pole position and I think also strategy-wise we were the favourites, but first of all you have to do the start. We were confident to defend the position, but it was closer than I thought it would be – all of a sudden I saw a silver arrow on the left-hand side,” he said of Hamilton’s aggressive start.
“Obviously I had the inside so it was my advantage, but it was closer than I thought it would be.
“Fortunately, apart from that I didn’t have wheel-to-wheel racing today,” he added. “I put my head down and tried to push every single lap. The car was fantastic and I was able to pull a gap quite quickly.
“The last couple of races were a little bit up and down – sometimes we had the pace, sometimes we didn’t – so it’s good to be back in first position.”
It’s a place unknown to Button since the Turkish Grand Prix in June and after starting 10th Button had little hope that Suzuka would grant him another glimpse. The Briton’s cause, though, was aided by an mid-race collision tangle between Kovalainen and Adrian Sutilm, the pair’s crunching tussle for eighth and eventual spins allowing Button to creep into the points.
Barrichello, meanwhile, was heading the other way, his sixth place eventually translating to seventh after Barrichello lost out in the safety car period to BMW-Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld.
“Today was about picking up points after our eventful qualifying session yesterday and that’s exactly what I did,” said Button.
“I did the best I could in the car that we had this weekend and we got the maximum performance out of it with a points-scoring finish.”
Button’s single point elevates him to 85 points but Barrichello closes by one to 71 points as he heads towards his home race in Sao Paulo in two weeks’ time.
RACE RESULT (53 Laps):
1 Vettel (Ger) Red Bull 01:28:20.443
2 Trulli(Ita) Toyota 01:28:25.243
3 Hamilton(Gbr) McLaren 01:28:26.843
4 Raikkonen(Fin) Ferrari 01:28:28.343
5 Rosberg(Ger) Williams 01:28:29.143
6 Heidfeld(Ger) BMW Sauber 01:28:29.943
7 Barrichello(Bra) Brawn GP 01:28:31.043
8 Button(Gbr) Brawn GP 01:28:31.843
9 Kubica(Pol) BMW Sauber 01:28:32.143
10 Alonso(Spa) Renault 01:28:33.443
11 Kovalainen(Fin) McLaren 01:28:34.143
12 Fisichella(Ita) Ferrari 01:28:34.943
13 Sutil(Ger) Force India 01:28:35.343
14 Liuzzi(Ita) Force India 01:28:36.143
15 Nakajima(Jpn) Williams 01:28:38.343
Not Classified: 16 Romain Grosjean (Fra) Renault +1 lap, 17 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull +2 laps, 18 Jaime Alguersuari (Spa) Scuderia Toro Rosso +10 laps, 19 Sebastien Buemi (Swi) Scuderia Toro Rosso +42 laps DNS: 20 Timo Glock (Ger) Toyota Championship
DRIVERS’ STANDINGS
1 Button(Gbr) Brawn GP 85.0pts 2 Barrichello(Bra) Brawn GP 71.0 3 Vettel(Ger) Red Bull 69.0 4 Webber(Aus) Red Bull 51.5 5 Raikkonen(Fin) Ferrari 45.0 6 Hamilton(Gbr) McLaren 43.0 7 Rosberg(Ger) Williams 34.5 8 Trulli(Ita) Toyota 30.5 9 Alonso(Spa) Renault 26.0 10 Glock(Ger) Toyota 24.0
MANUFACTURERS' STANDINGS:
1 Brawn GP156.0pts, 2 Red Bull120.5, 3 Ferrari67.0, 4 McLaren65.0, 5 Toyota54.5, 6 Williams34.5, 7 Renault26.0, 8 BMW Sauber24.0, 9 Force India13.0, 10 Scuderia Toro Rosso5.0
