F1:Japan (Part Three) - Day of the Vettel

We're halfway there now (no... DON'T sing the song bro'!), so let's take a look at the concluding part...


Approaching the halfway distance now and it was still Romain Grosjean who led the race, proving himself to be no fluke and setting a record for the most number of laps that he's led this year in a single race. Is it no fluke that he's flourished now he's going to emerge from under the shadow of the former World Champion Kimi Räikkönen? I don't think so!

Behind him was Sebastian Vettel who was promptly told, around one of the pit stops, that he was indeed racing Grosjean and NOT Webber, meaning the team clearly had not given up on a race win, despite following him around for most of the race so far. Grosjean meanwhile, was told that he was on target for the race win, he wasn't told to slow down or speed up meaning that his chance was coming soon for a race win!

A pit stop now and the advantage was handed to Vettel to press on for the race win as the two of them were ahead of Webber... A look into the mind of the Red Bull engineers implied that with Vettel going onto the harder compound, it was wondered whether he would end up having to pit again to end the race on the option compound. But that would not last for too long as once the pit stop strategies had settled down, Webber was the one who came out on top at this stage having stayed out to benefit from this.

Daniel Ricciardo was handed a drive-through penalty for gaining an advantage by leaving the track on an overtaking manoeuvre, before Felipe Massa was handed one for speeding in the pit late... anymore for anymore, boys?!

After this, Vettel was immediately told "that's Grosjean for you, go get him!" implying that they too thought that at least ONE of their drivers was odds-on favourite to win the race and maybe even odds-on for the lockout of the result AS WELL as qualifying... talk about confidence, bro's!

The moment Vettel got the better of Grosjean, on lap 41 out of 53, a move which was inevitable given the way he both used DRS to see the job done on the start/finish straight. The way he had eaten into Grosjean's advantage prior to this from the pits , proved that 14 seconds trailing Webber was not an insurmountable amount and he was soon off after him and it became about fishing for Webber and reeling him in!

Unfortunately though, at this point I recall your minds back to my previous review of Formula One and the idea that I banked on Vettel sealing the title here are slightly misguided here, as Alonso was holding his own in the top five. Ah well, maybe next time!

Webber's tires soon had gone 'off the edge' (as they like to call it) meaning that the race was practically reset and a 10 lap sprint to the finish is what would decide who won out of Vettel, Grosjean and Webber.

Bad blood much? That's what I wondered for a moment as Perez and Rosberg came together resulting in a puncture for the McLaren driver, meaning it was likely this would be investigated either post-race or swiftly.

By now as the race was closing, Webber was chasing down Grosjean in a manner not unlike Vettel meaning that a lockout was increasingly more likely now that the Red Bull driver had finally lost that monkey from his back in terms of the quality parts seemingly given to Vettel instead (a move which is nonsense, given that Christian Horner himself has said that they have the same car!).

Nico Hulkenberg, having got past Ricciardo who was menacing him in holding him up, could now do the same to Alonso but it wouldn't last as near the end, Alonso got the better of him proving that sometimes experience mattered more than skill. Further back from this, Massa was overtaken by Rosberg for 8th position.

By lap 49, the Lotus was proving that it was no slouch either and also that, given a quality driver, it could be pushed for a race win no problem.Räikkönen t this point was 6th and looked likely to be comfortably beaten by his team-mate in race terms as well as qualifying this time, a move that has been a long time coming in my opinion!

Lap 51 out of 53 and Webber was really, REALLY trying to hunt down Grosjean but it just seemed too much for him until a surge a lap later only to be slow out of the final chicane gave us all a nervy few seconds to see what the acceleration was like for the Red Bull in comparison with the Lotus. The next lap was the decider and the key as Webber got the job done and was now looking likely to finally beat Grosjean into third, a position he is not all-too-unfamiliar with so far this season.

With Alonso 4th and Räikkönen 5th, Vettel won the race proving that his was evermore the determined nature to not give up when a racer is dominating the early parts of the race, because it can all unravel in the closing stages with differing strategies as he had to the Lotus this time. This was his ninth win of the season and his fourth at Suzuka.

Further back, Esteban Gutierrez scored his first points of the season, an impressive move given that he's been outdone by his team-mate on more than one occasion this year.

This was a good day for Renault as they were the sole representative of enginue suppliers on the podium!

DRIVER OF THE DAY

Okay, so this one doesn't really buck the trend as I reward the tenacity, the skill and the downright sublime effort from one driver and the winner of this one is: -

Romain Grosjean

This man is proving that he's put his mistakes behind him with every race he puts between himself and last year and, now that his team-mate Kimi Räikkönen is going to be leaving Lotus at the end of this year, he's proving that he's not afraid to step out into the limelight and race according to his true skill. It was under the surface admittedly last season, but this time around, he's looking like he's here to stay and as long as he keeps consistently raking in the points, there's no way he'll NOT be the number one Lotus in the years to come!

I'm still waiting for a race win, though and, given his performances so far, I would not be at all surprised if at least one came by season end/

Next time around it's India, so we'll see if that one is Romain's time, or whether it is again the day of the Vettel!

Peace out!


The Lanky Penguin