JENSON WINS JAPAN BUT LOSES TITLE TO VETTEL
(Images taken from Yahoo)
So, this was it. Sebastien Vettel vs Jenson Button. The German had dominated the championship but still in theory, Jenson could yet claim the title or at least keep the champagne on ice with four races still to go. This was the Japanese Grand Prix at Susuka though and plenty of world champions have claimed titles here. Damon Hill in '96 and Michael Schumacher in '00 are the two obvious ones that come to mind. Barring a miracle, Vettel would add his name to that list, Jenson needed to win this race to even have a chance of just keeping the title race going. Yet F1 is nothing if not unpredictable so while Jenson still had a mathematical chance I maintained hope.
In qualifying...well all three Brits made it through to Q2 but both Rosberg and Luizzi failed to set a Q1 time - luckilly the stewards were merciful and both were able to start the race. Both McLarens then succsessfully made it through to Q3 but Di Resta wasn't so hot and had to settle for P12. Alonso was the first guy to set a hot time in Q3 only for Lewis to raise the bar and it seemed as though he would do the business untill Vetttel came through at the last possible second to take his fifth pole in a row! Jenson grabbed P2 for the third time this season. Further down, Lewis settled for P3. Things were now looking ominous.
Di Resta went on to finish 12th in the race.
Lewis seemed to start reasonably well, making it up to 2nd but then started falling back rapidly and it turned out that he'd picked up an early puncture, the rest of the leading back came in a few laps later and when the dust settled, Lewis found himself 4th. It wasn't long before he had Massa on his tail though(again) and was only able to hold him off pretty messilly but the stewards decided it wasn't a big deal. The safety car came out soon afterwards but Lewis had once again had a rough time with his tyres and found himself down in 6th. Once again he had to deal with Massa and this time he took the Brazilian smoothly. He wasn't able to get much further though and had to settle for 5th.
As for Jenson well he tried to take Vettel at the start only for the reigning world champion to force him on to the grass and Jenson then slid down to 3rd. Lewis's tyre problems allowed him up to 2nd pretty smoothly and he briefly took the lead mid-pit stop sequence before briefly dropping back to 2nd and then one top quality pit stop later...he's back in the lead! After that well he didn't seem to be under much of a threat untill late on when he looked to be taking it too easilly...before stepping it up at the end to take his third win of the season and in theory keep the title race going...as long as Vettel fell off the road! Slight problem, he didn't, the German finishing 3rd to secure the title!
So, the championship looks like this: Vettel has won the championship with 324 points with four races to go. Jenson remains 2nd on 210 points. Further down, Lewis remains 5th on 178 points and could still claim 2nd place.
So, congratulations to Sebastien Vettel, 2011 Formula 1 world champion. It's his 2nd title in a row and he bcomes the first driver to win back to back F1 titles since Fernando Alonso in '05 and '06 and the first German driver to pull it off since Michael Schumacher in '03-'04, back in my Uni days! I'm not sure what can be said about Vettel's season that hasn't been said already - he has absolutely destroyed his opposition this time around. Part of that is clearly down to the Red Bull which is a seriously good car and part of it is the team protecting him from his teammate Webber and part of it is his other rivals having various issues but for now, that can be considered nitpicking - his rivals will just have to try and stop him next year!
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