JENSON'S OPPITUNITY TO WIN JAPAN ESCAPES, SNAPPED UP BY RAIKONNEN
This photo was taken from www.yahoo.co.uk
With Fernando Alonso having banked the drivers Championship, there was little to fight for going into this race in theory. It had been announced that Honda were buying out BAR in '06, Red Bull were taking over Minardi, and Honda had stuck a classy new engine in the back of the BAR. Could this be Jenson Button's time to win?
Qualifying worked well enough. It was Coulthard who wound up going out first and his time kept him on provisional pole till halfway through the session, when Takuma Sato managed to beat it, then DC's Austrian teammate Christian Klien beat that before Ralf Schmacher managed to snap up pole, Jenson started second, Fisichella third, Klien fourth, Sato fifth and DC sixth. Michal Schmacher wound up 14th, and Alonso, Raikonnen and Montoya 16th-18th respectivly.
At the start, Montoya came steaming through the grid only to tangle with Sato and wind taken out with his car still on the track. Cue saftey car. By this point, Jenson had fallen to third with DC making it up to fourth. Alonso, Michael and Raikonnen were all on fire by that point though.
Ralf pitted surprisingly early, putting Jenson up to second for a bit, and the Brit then led DC in a UK one-two after Fisichella pitted. Slight problem though, the fuel flap on his car was busted and getting it screwdrivered open in the pits took so long that it cost him a place to Ralf. The second stop went more smoothly but he then got himself further taken by Alonso and Webber, forcing him into a fifth place finish, with DC sixth.
In the meantime, Michael, Alonso and Raikonnen were generally racing each other for fifth place, in that order, Raikonen hot on Alonso's heels. Alonso was going to have to eat or be eaten and so said "oi Michael, I'm the World Champion now!" suddenly flying past the Ferrari and leaving Michael sucking his exhaust. After another round of pit stops however, the order was Schumacher-Raikonnen-Alonso and the German got overtaken by both this year's title rivals.
And so Raikonen and Alonso tracked down Webber and overtook the Aussie, thus leaving the red hot Finn to go after Fisichella and just reeled the Itallian in, taking him on the last lap of the race to take the chequered flag and the race, Alonso finishing third, his performance resulting in McLaren boss Ron Dennis boogieing on the podium before the anthems played, even though technically it's Renault that still leaves Japan leading the constructors title.
Dissapointing result from a UK perspective but still a very classy race, just got China to go!
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