VETTEL'S NOT DONE YET
(Image taken from Yahoo)
Amazingly, the Suzuka circuit hasn't hosted a Grand Prix since '06. Back then a title race between Alonso and Michael Schumacher was going down to the wire. Three years is a very long time. Since then F1 has transformed itself and Alonso has gone from breath of fresh air to arrogant moron. Jenson Button and Barrichello were teammates back then but they were certainly nowhere near title contenders. This time around, with a bunch of guys tacking Suzuka for the first time, Jenson had a chance of clinching the title with two races to go. Both Barrichello and technically Vettel were still in the mixer though and a seriously wet practice proved nothing.
Well the big news from Q1 was that Webber wouldn't even be taking part, having written off his car in Saturday morning practice. The two Brits made it through OK though. Then things really got insane with two red flags in Q2(and Timo Glock taken out of action due to a leg wound)! Q3 saw another red flag early on, resulting panic for everyone else trying to set times. Raikonen was first to set a time, then Vettel came storming in and went on to collected his 4th pole of the season. Trulli started P2 with Lewis P3. Jenson originally qualified down in P7 but as he set that time while going through waved yellows he was booted back, eventually being given P10.
As for the race itself well things didn't really go to plan for Jenson. He didn't have the best of starts but did manage to take Kubica before taking advantage of the sort of clash that biased fans dream about between Kovalainen and Sutl to move into the points. After that he was generally holding position and never looked like doing much else but some good pace late on saw him pick off Rosberg to claim 7th and despite some messy moments at the end, that's where he took the chequered flag. Nowhere near enough to claim the title on this occasion but it still increased the pressure on his rivals to do the business in the remaining races.
Well Lewis made a grab for the lead from the start but eventually had to settle for 2nd with the leader dissapearing off into the distance. Over the course of the race the 2008 world champion looked a safe bet to be best of the rest. Slight problem, he eventually ran into a problem with the KERS system, making the technology a dead weight. After that he appeared to have gear trouble coming out of the pits and that slowed him down enough to cost him a position and he came home 3rd in the end. Another solid performance for the McLaren main man though who will surely be in the mixer to compete for a second title in 2010 and nothing to prove for the rest of this season.
It was Vettel that went on to surge into the lead from the start though and after that there wasn't much attention on him mainly because he was just cruising round the track despite this being his first race at Suzuka(back in '06 he was just a test driver). His lead was never really under threat until late on when he was slow coming out of his second pitstop but even a late safety car couldn't trouble the path to his third win of the season, moving him back into the championship battle with two races to go. Trulli held on for 2nd in what was his best result since Bahrain '05! Impressive for a guy that's not garunteed a seat for 2010 yet!
So Jenson still leads the championship coming out of Japan with 85 points though his lead's been cut to 14 points. Further down, Lewis remains in 6th place on 43 points.
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