F1-Winning Machine Vettel Cruises To Suzuka Victory

It was another Vettel victory as he closes in on his fourth consecutive title...

18 May 2015

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Sebastian Vettel (surprise, surprise) clinched his fourth victory around the iconic Suzuka circuit. The German didn't, however, lead from the start of the race, Romain Grosjean launching from the line perfectly and taking the lead into turn one.

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Behind the Frenchman, Vettel and Lewis Hamilton's cars clashed as the Brit attempted to split the Red Bull cars. This punctured Hamilton's tyre which led to a bitter retirement. Meanwhile at the back of the pack, Giedo van der Garde and Jules Bianchi made contact, pitching the Caterham into the barrier and leaving the Marussia beached in the kitty litter.

The main talking point throughout the race was strategy. A two-stop race was predicted to be five seconds faster, but Red Bull put Webber on a three-stopper, to his surprise, which cost him the race win. Grosjean held the early lead and looked mature out front before dropping behind Webber in the pit stop sequence.

Image source: Lotus F1 Team

Vettel eventually found his way through and pulled away in the final stint. Webber had dropped back behind the Frenchman on his final stop and just couldn't find a way through despite being on the faster option compound tyre. He did make his way past Grosjean on lap 51 after a late move on the pit straight.

The German crossed the line to record his fifth consecutive race victory and the fourth Japanese Grand Prix win of his career. However, it wasn't the usual faultless run to the flag after a number of mistakes. He had a poor start from second, ran wide early on and continuously locked up into the sector three chicane.

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Webber had first place in his sights and was disappointed to drop to second place. However, his strategy didn't work out and the time lost behind Grosjean put pay to his challenge. Unbelievably, it was only his fourth podium finish of 2013 in what has been an unlucky final season in Formula 1.

Grosjean drove a fine race to third, his second podium finish in seven days. He finished 36 seconds clear of his more experienced team-mate. Alonso kept his slim chance of the title alive with a fourth place finish. He needed to finish in eighth or better to take the title fight to India and he did just that, moving through the field early on and making some late moves to cross the line as best of the rest.

Image source: Vodafone McLaren Mercedes

Raikkonen also drove well from from ninth on the grid, finishing in fifth place and taking another consistent result.

Korean Grand Prix star Nico Hulkenberg impressed once again with a sixth place finish. However his Sauber team-mate Esteban Gutierrez took plenty of praise too after becoming the first rookie of 2013 to score a point. He took seventh place after a strong first lap and a brilliant defensive drive after coming under increased pressure from Nico Rosberg in the closing stages.

Image source: Sahara Force India F1 Team

Rosberg took Mercedes' only points of the Japanese Grand Prix with eighth place. However he was given a drive-through penalty for an unsafe release in the pit lane which cost the team points. Button raced hard to ninth after a delay in his second pit stop and a fiery battle with Felipe Massa in the final stint.

Massa finished in 10th after he was also given a drive-through penalty, this time for speeding in the pit lane. Paul di Resta, Jean-Eric Vergne and Daniel Ricciardo finished just outside the points and ahead of Sutil and Perez. The latter suffered yet another puncture, but this time it was due to contact with Rosberg.

Image source: Marussia F1 Team

Maldonado and Bottas finished in 16th and 17th but almost took each other out of the race after contact in the closing stages. Pic and Chilton rounded out the finishers after both of their team-mates collided at the first turn.

So it was another race win for Vettel in what was an interesting strategic race. The triple world champion mastered the Suzuka circuit for the fourth time in five visits to nab secure the win.

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