Vettel seals title as Button wins in Japan

Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel became the youngest double world champion with a third place finish at Suzuka yesterday.

In doing so the German joins the elite list of drivers’ who have won two titles consecutively: Alberto Ascari, Juan Manuel Fangio, Jack Brabham, Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna, Mika Hakkinen, Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso are the other members of this exclusive club.

Ideally the Red Bull man would have liked to have continued his winning streak and seal the championship with a victory after denying Jenson Button (McLaren) pole by 0.009 seconds.

His desire to do so was evident as he aggressively defended his lead off the line, pushing the Brit towards the grass as he tried to dart up the inside. The McLaren driver called for an investigation into the incident over the radio, but no action was taken by race control.

Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) capitalised on Button’s misfortune by sweeping around the outside to take second early on. However, a slow puncture on his rear right tyre hampered his race, forcing him to pit on lap seven. Hamilton emerged in fourth place behind the Ferrari of Alonso, who had passed team-mate Felipe Massa heading into the first corner during the opening laps.

Button’s superior tyre management brought him to within touching distance of Vettel before the first round of pitstops, but the German managed to retain the lead until the second round of stops, where the McLaren drivers’ brilliant in-lap and quicker tyre change gave him the advantage.

The field closed together as the safety car was deployed after a piece of Massa’s Ferrari bodywork was strewn across the final chicane. The damage was caused by yet another altercation with Hamilton, this time in the battle of fourth. After the race the Brazilian called for action against the Brit, stating that similar incidents have happened “many times this year. The FIA needs to take care of that. They are the only ones who can take care of it.”

Vettel found himself way down the field under the yellow flag after switching to the medium tyre compound on lap 33. Meanwhile Button ran three laps longer, while Alonso delayed stopping for a further lap. The result was that the soon-to-be-champion found himself behind both his fellow competitors as they emerged in front after their respective pitstops.

Vettel fiercely pursued Alonso for several laps until Red Bull instructed him to back off and settle for the points that would ultimately give him the title. The Spaniard stormed off after the race leader, closing the gap to less than a second before the McLaren driver increased his pace enough to fend off the late challenge and take the win in Japan.

Outside of the podium positions, Mark Webber (Red Bull) took P4 after jumping Massa and Hamilton with an early second pitstop. Hamilton managed to retake fifth from the Ferrari driver into the first corner on lap 37.

Seven-time World Champion Michael Schumacher had to settle for sixth, although his three stop strategy briefly gifted him a rare lead. The Mercedes emerged in front of Massa, who was left with a disappointing P7.

The two-stop strategies that Sergio Perez (Sauber) and Vitaly Petrov (Renault) adopted produced points finishes as they claimed an eighth and ninth place respectively. Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) battled from 23rd to take the final point.

Kamui Kobayashi (Sauber) home race wasn’t the dream return he was hoping for. After securing an impressive P7 in qualifying he had to settle for 13th after a poor start which left him fighting in traffic for much of the afternoon.

The next stop on the calendar is South Korea over the weekend of October 15/16. For Red Bull the attention now fully turns to securing another Constructors’ title, while Button, Alonso, Webber and Hamilton are all battling for second place in the Drivers’ championship.

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Tom Cauvain