Suzuka, 10 October

If one accepts that the two Red Bulls were in a race of their own today, then Fernando Alonso won the Grand Prix for the other cars. Unfortunately, only one driver takes the winner’s points, so the Spanish Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro driver had to settle for a great third place on the podium at the end of an action-packed 53 laps of the fantastic Suzuka track. His team-mate Felipe Massa had a very short race, knocked out at the very first corner as he was involved in a collision with Tonio Liuzzi in the Force India and his F10 was too badly damaged to continue.

Fernando is still second in the Drivers’ championship, but the gap to the leader Mark Webber, who came second today, has grown from 11 to 14 points. The Ferrari man is now equal on points with today’s winner, Sebastian Vettel, but is ranked second as he has one more victory than the German. In the Constructors’ classification, the Scuderia is still third, but here too, the gap to the leaders has grown from 64 to 92 points.


The enthusiastic Japanese crowd certainly got good value for money today, watching not just the race, but, in the morning, qualifying too. In fact, the excitement began before the start, as Di Grassi destroyed his Virgin going out to the grid. Then, as soon as the lights went out, Hulkenberg and Petrov collided, with the Renault ending up in the barrier at the side of the grid. Going into the first corner, Vettel led from pole, while Kubica made a great start from third to tuck his Renault in behind the German and ahead of Webber, so that Fernando was in his grid position, fourth. Further back, Felipe was hit by Liuzzi and both men spun off into the gravel at Turn 1, so that the Safety Car made a very early appearance, staying out until the end of lap 6. Fernando was promoted to third when Kubica retired on lap 2 and from then on, the Ferrari man was generally around 2 seconds behind Webber with the McLaren duo of Button and Hamilton behind him.

On lap 24, Vettel and Fernando made their one pit stop to change tyres, so that Webber led for a lap until he too came in, which left Button in the lead, the Englishman eventually pitting much later than the other front runners on lap 38. There were some good scraps further down the order, with Rosberg holding off his Mercedes team-mate, Schumacher for much of the race until the younger man spun off the track. Delighting the crowds was the Japanese driver Kobayashi, who first came to prominence with a great drive here last year. The Sauber man, on fresh tyres, charged up the order in the closing stages to come home seventh.

Once Button had pitted, the old order resumed at the front, with the two Red Bulls ahead of Fernando, followed by Button who got the better of his team-mate, as Hamilton had a gearbox problem. That would remain the order to the flag, with Schumacher finishing sixth ahead of the aforementioned Kobayashi, whose team-mate Heidfeld was eighth. Barrichello was ninth and Buemi was tenth for Toro Rosso, meaning that along with the two Saubers, no less than four Ferrari engines finished in the top ten. Next stop, the new adventure that is Korea, in two weekends time.