Sebastian Vettel lead Red Bull to a commanding 1-2 finish at this weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix. Vettel took the top spot for the second year in a row, with team-mate Mark Webber closely following in second. Webber’s podium means that he now leads the drivers’ championship by 14 points over third place finisher, Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso and Vettel.
The excitement started before the race had even begun when Virgin Racing’s Lucas Di Grassi crashed at 130R on the formation lap.
The first few corners also saw much action when Renault’s Vitaly Petrov clipped the Williams of Nico Hulkenberg and Ferrari’s Felipe Massa took to the grass before crashing into Force India’s Tonio Liuzzi.
The crashes meant the Safety Car was deployed with Renault’s Robert Kubica splitting the two Red Bulls at the front of the pack. Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be the Pole’s day and he had to pull off on Lap 3 after his right rear tyre shredded, leaving the Red Bull pairing in first and second at the race restart.
Nico Rosberg look set to finish ahead of his team-mate Michael Schumacher until five laps before the end when he lost a wheel at crashed at the S curves, leaving Schumacher to finish in a solid sixth place.
Kamui Kobayashi pleased the crowd with some spectacular overtaking. He passed both Alguersuari and Sutil before being overtaken by them whilst in the pits for his tyre stop. However his fresh tyres meant he was able to put in some quick laps and he soon passed Alguesari again, with the Toro Rosso ending up with a broken front wing. Sutil then had an engine failure giving Kobayashi a place before he passed the Williams of Rubens Barrichello and his team-mate Nick Heidfeld to delight the home crowd.
Japanese Grand Prix 2010 Results
Pos Driver Team Time
1. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1h30:27.323
2. Webber Red Bull-Renault + 0.905
3. Alonso Ferrari + 2.721
4. Button McLaren-Mercedes + 13.522
5. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes + 39.595
6. Schumacher Mercedes + 59.933
7. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari + 1:04:038
8. Heidfeld Sauber-Ferrari + 1:09.648
9. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth + 1:10.846
10. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1:12.806
11. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1 lap
12. Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth + 1 lap
13. Trulli Lotus-Cosworth + 2 laps
14. Glock Virgin-Cosworth + 2 laps
15. Senna HRT-Cosworth + 2 laps
16. Yamamoto HRT-Cosworth + 3 laps
17. Rosberg Mercedes + 5 laps
DNF
Sutil Force India-Mercedes 45
Kubica Renault 4
Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth 1
Massa Ferrari 1
Petrov Renault 1
Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes 1
Di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth 1
