MOTOR SPORT/Japanese Grand Prix: Jenson Button could have been forgiven for thinking ahead to the 2005 season as his BAR-Honda crossed the finishing line in third place at the end of the Japanese grand prix, only 5.5 seconds behind Ralf Schumacher's Williams-BMW.
Next year Button wants to drive for Williams, and on Saturday he will hear whether the FIA's contracts recognition board judges that his agreement with the British team takes precedence over his existing deal with BAR.
It is an acute worry for the 24-year-old who has clinched third place in the drivers' world championship, trailing only Ferrari's brilliant duo of Michael Schumacher, who won yesterday, and Rubens Barrichello, who was eliminated from the race after colliding with David Coulthard's McLaren-Mercedes during a botched overtaking manoeuvre.
From fifth on the grid, Button squeezed past Mark Webber's slow-starting Jaguar to surge round team-mate Takuma Sato into third place at the first corner. On a two-stop strategy, he was a tad slower than the three-stop Sato in the early stages as he struggled with poor handling on his first set of tyres.
Dropping behind the Japanese cost him 2.1 seconds and, bearing in mind he crossed the finishing line just behind the younger Schumacher, contributed in no small measure to destroying his chances of finishing second.
Despite this it was a great day for the BAR-Honda squad, who all but clinched second place in the constructors' championship behind Ferrari.
With heavy rain and 120mph winds forecast to bring their full force to bear on Suzuka on Saturday morning, qualifying was postponed until yesterday morning and the circuit stripped of its camera positions and trackside hospitality facilities as a precaution.
In the event, the worst of the typhoon veered away from the area, although torrential rain fell for more than 24 hours, disrupting national train services and power supplies.
Truth be told, this was Suzuka's equivalent of Silverstone's muddy car-park debacle in 2000 - but without the muddy car park.
Yesterday's qualifying proved a great spectacle on a drying track surface with 155,000 spectators cramming the access roads for miles around the circuit, most of them hell bent on cheering Sato to the echo.
For a few fleeting moments it looked as though the local hero might just bag pole before, first, he was elbowed aside by Webber's Jaguar R6 and then by the Schumachers, Michael's Ferrari F2004 comfortably easing out Ralf's Williams FW26 by half a second.
Michael Schumacher's recent absence from top spot on the Formula One rostrum may have lulled some of his opposition into believing the Ferrari driver was just a little too comfortable with life after clinching his all-time record seventh world championship with second place in the Belgian grand prix six weeks ago. Yesterday he shook them out of such naive complacency, surging from pole position to an unchallenged victory by 14 seconds from his brother's Williams.
The rogue weather conditions had unexpectedly obliged the competing teams to become embroiled in the one-day qualifying and race format which many people inside the business have been advocating for some time in an attempt to reduce costs.
"This was an historic day for Formula One, taking pole and the win on the same day," said Michael Schumacher. "It was certainly exciting, but I prefer the old system. This one is quite stressful for the engineers and the mechanics."
Schumacher's 83rd career victory was a record-equalling 15th of the season for Ferrari. It came after he had recorded his 63rd pole position - two shy of Ayrton Senna's record.
Sato finished a strong fourth ahead of Kimi Raikkonen, the Finn's McLaren surviving a brush with Timo Glock's Jordan as he lapped the slower car, and Juan Pablo Montoya brought the other Williams-BMW home seventh in front of the Saubers of Giancarlo Fisichella and Felipe Massa.
The 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve had another disappointing race, finishing 10th, just ahead of the man he replaced in the Renault team, the Monaco winner Jarno Trulli, who was having his first drive in a Toyota prior to a full season next year. Guardian Service
JAPANESE GRAND PRIX: 1 M Schumacher (Ger) Ferrari 1:24.26.9; 2 R Schumacher (Ger) Williams 1:24.41.0; 3 J Button (Bri) BAR 1:24.46.5; 4 T Sato (Jpn) BAR 1:24.58.6; 5 F Alonso (Spn) Renault 1:25.04.6; 6 K Raikkonen (Fin) McLaren 1:25.06.2; 7 JP Montoya (Col) Williams 1:25.22.2; 8 G Fisichella (Ita) Sauber 1:25.23.1; 9 F Massa (Bra) Sauber 1:25.56.5; 10 J Villeneuve (Can) Renault 1 lap behind; 11 J Trulli (Ita) Renault 1 lap; 12 C Klein (Aus) Jaguar 1 lap; 13 N Heidfeld (Ger) Jordan 1 lap; 14 O Panis (Fra) Toyota 2 laps; 15 T Glock (Ger) Jordan 2 laps; 16 G Bruni (Ita) Minardi 3 laps. Did not finish: Z Baumgartner (Hun) Minardi 12 laps completed; D Coulthard (Bri) McLaren 15; R Barrichello (Bra) Ferrari 15; M Webber (Aus) Jaguar 33
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS: Drivers: 1 M Schumacher 146 pts; 2 R Barrichello 108; 3 Button 85; 4 Alonso 54; 5 Montoya 48; 6 Trulli 46; 7 Raikkonen 37; 8 Sato 31; 9 Coulthard 24; 10 Fisichella 22; 11 R Schumacher; 12 Massa 11; 13 Webber 7; 14 Panis 6; 15 A Pizzonia (Bra) Williams 6; 16= Klein, C Da Matta (Bra) Toyota 3; 18 Heidfeld 3; 19 Glock 2; 20 Baumgartner 1. Constructors: 1 Ferrari 254 pts; 2 BAR 116; 3 Renault 100; 4 Williams 74; 5 McLaren 61; 6 Sauber 33; 7 Jaguar 10; 8 Toyota 9; 9 Jordan 5; 10 Minardi 1
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