Sebastian Vettel
The five title contenders for the F1 Championship 2010 took the top five slots in an action packed Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka. Sebastian Vettel led a Red Bull 1-2 finish as Mark Webber extended his lead to 14 points. Fernando Alonso finished third while the Mclarens will be disappointed as Button and Hamilton finished fourth and fifth respectively. Seven time world Champion for Michael Schumacher finished first among the non championship challengers and Kobayashi thrilled the home crowd to finish seventh.
When the lights went out, Vettel, who was fastest in practice and in qualifying, raced away from the rest of the pack along with Renault’s Kubica as Webber dropped to third. But the real action was down in the midfield as the other Renault Vitaly Petrov clipped Nico Hulkenberg’s Williams and crashed into the barriers. And then Felipe Massa slammed into Force India’s Vitantonio Liuzzi, both men retiring from the race. The spate of retirements continued as Kubica was forced to retire on Lap 3 thus leaving the Red Bulls at one-two followed by Alonso followed by the Mclarens.
Hamilton was the first to pit on Lap 23 and was followed by Vettel, Alonso and Webber thus giving Button, who was running on hard tyres, the lead. The Brit finally pit on Lap 38 restoring the lead to the Red Bulls, and Alonso the lead. He came out of the pits in 5th position behind Hamilton but Hamilton suffered a gear problem and the Mclarens swapped places on Lap 40.
Sauber’s Kobayashi meanwhile took out Jamie Alguesuari and also got past Barrichelo and teammate Heidfeld as the Suzuka crowd cheered on. Also Force India’s Sutil was forced to retire after his engine blew up and Nico Rosberg crashed into the barrier on Lap 50.
Meanwhile Vettel remained in complete control as he finished nine tenths of a second ahead of Webber who was followed by Alonso. The win moved Vettel to second in the Championship, on par with Alonso on 206 points while Webber moved to 220. The Mclarens have a bit of catching up to do with Hamilton and Button on 192 and 189 points respectively giving a mouth watering finish to what has been a topsy turvy season for them.
Tags: F1 Championship 2010, Japanese Grand Prix, Mark Webber, Red Bull, Sebastian Vettel, Sports, Suzuka
