Sebastian Vettel narrows title lead with Suzuka win
Sebastian Vettel leads the field into Turn 1 at Suzuka
Sebastian Vettel’s Formula 1 World Championship stocks have risen after he took a comfortable win the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka today.
Vettel’s victory puts him just four points behind world championship leader Fernando Alonso, who failed to finish after contact with Kimi Raikkonen sent him spinning off the circuit at Turn 1 on the opening lap of the race.
It was the second-consecutive victory for the Red Bull Racing driver.
Alonso’s Ferrari team-mate Felipe Massa scored second place on what was a mixed day for the famous Italian team.
Kamui Kobayashi made for a popular appearance on the podium in third position at his home Grand Prix.
Kobayashi’s appearance on the podium is the first for a Japanese driver since Takuma Sato finished second at the 2004 United States GP.
The pint-sized Sauber driver fended off a late attack from McLaren’s Jenson Button, who finished fourth ahead of his departing McLaren team-mate Lewis Hamilton.
Kimi Raikkonen, who was involved in the Lap 1 contact with Alonso, almost collided at high speed with Hamilton on Lap 33 on his way to a sixth place for Lotus-Renault.
Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg pocketed a healthy bag of points in seventh ahead of Pastor Maldonado.
Starting from the front row of the grid, Mark Webber did well to finish in ninth after being spun onto the Turn 1 infield by an erratic Romain Grosjean on Lap 1.
As a result of the collision, F1 official’s handed Grosjean a 10 second stop-go penalty down to the Frenchman.
Daniel Ricciardo rounded out the top 10 with a solid showing in his Scuderia Toro Rosso. Ricciardo was able to hold off seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher in the dying stages to grab the final points scoring position.
Sergio Perez retired on Lap 19 after he beached his Sauber in the sand trap at the Turn 11 Hairpin.
The opening lap chaos also claimed Mercedes GP’s Nico Rosberg, who along with Alonso failed to complete a single lap of the 53 Lap race.
The next round of the the F1 world championship will be held next weekend in Korea.
Result, Japanese Grand Prix
| Pos | No | Driver | Team | Laps | Time/Retired | Grid | Pts |
| 1 | 1 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull Racing-Renault | 53 | 1:28:56.242 | 1 | 25 |
| 2 | 6 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 53 | +20.6 secs | 10 | 18 |
| 3 | 14 | Kamui Kobayashi | Sauber-Ferrari | 53 | +24.5 secs | 3 | 15 |
| 4 | 3 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 53 | +25.0 secs | 8 | 12 |
| 5 | 4 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 53 | +46.4 secs | 9 | 10 |
| 6 | 9 | Kimi Räikkönen | Lotus-Renault | 53 | +50.4 secs | 7 | 8 |
| 7 | 12 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India-Mercedes | 53 | +51.1 secs | 15 | 6 |
| 8 | 18 | Pastor Maldonado | Williams-Renault | 53 | +52.3 secs | 12 | 4 |
| 9 | 2 | Mark Webber | Red Bull Racing-Renault | 53 | +54.6 secs | 2 | 2 |
| 10 | 16 | Daniel Ricciardo | STR-Ferrari | 53 | +66.9 secs | 14 | 1 |
| 11 | 7 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes | 53 | +67.7 secs | 23 | |
| 12 | 11 | Paul di Resta | Force India-Mercedes | 53 | +83.4 secs | 11 | |
| 13 | 17 | Jean-Eric Vergne | STR-Ferrari | 53 | +88.6 secs | 19 | |
| 14 | 19 | Bruno Senna | Williams-Renault | 53 | +88.7 secs | 16 | |
| 15 | 20 | Heikki Kovalainen | Caterham-Renault | 52 | +1 Lap | 17 | |
| 16 | 24 | Timo Glock | Marussia-Cosworth | 52 | +1 Lap | 18 | |
| 17 | 21 | Vitaly Petrov | Caterham-Renault | 52 | +1 Lap | 22 | |
| 18 | 22 | Pedro de la Rosa | HRT-Cosworth | 52 | +1 Lap | 20 | |
| 19 | 10 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus-Renault | 51 | +2 Laps | 4 | |
| Ret | 25 | Charles Pic | Marussia-Cosworth | 37 | +16 Laps | 21 | |
| Ret | 23 | Narain Karthikeyan | HRT-Cosworth | 32 | +21 Laps | 24 | |
| Ret | 15 | Sergio Perez | Sauber-Ferrari | 18 | +35 Laps | 5 | |
| Ret | 5 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 0 | +53 Laps | 6 | |
| Ret | 8 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 0 | +53 Laps | 13 | |
Championship points
| Pos | Driver | Points |
| 1 | Fernando Alonso | 194 |
| 2 | Sebastian Vettel | 190 |
| 3 | Kimi Räikkönen | 157 |
| 4 | Lewis Hamilton | 152 |
| 5 | Mark Webber | 134 |
| 6 | Jenson Button | 131 |
| 7 | Nico Rosberg | 93 |
| 8 | Romain Grosjean | 82 |
| 9 | Felipe Massa | 69 |
| 10 | Sergio Perez | 66 |
| 11 | Kamui Kobayashi | 50 |
| 12 | Paul di Resta | 44 |
| 13 | Michael Schumacher | 43 |
| 14 | Nico Hulkenberg | 37 |
| 15 | Pastor Maldonado | 33 |
| 16 | Bruno Senna | 25 |
| 17 | Jean-Eric Vergne | 8 |
| 18 | Daniel Ricciardo | 7 |
| 19 | Timo Glock | 0 |
| 20 | Heikki Kovalainen | 0 |
| 21 | Vitaly Petrov | 0 |
| 22 | Jerome D’Ambrosio | 0 |
| 23 | Charles Pic | 0 |
| 24 | Narain Karthikeyan | 0 |
| 25 | Pedro de la Rosa | 0 |
