Formula One Highlights: Japanese Grand Prix, Raceday Part 2
The top 10 got off to a clean restart. Sebastian Vettel led the way followed by Mark Webber, Fernando Alonso, Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton – it was interesting to note that the top 5 championship contenders were in the top 5 positions.
Lap 8 showed both Mercedes cars in the thick of the action. Nico Rosberg went briefly off track at 130R while trying to overtake Buemi. The second Mercedes featuring Michael Schumacher barged its way through Rubens Barrichello – old team mates? Barrichello
who...?!
As far as the tale from the front was concerned, Sebastian Vettel continued to dictate his dominance as he set the fastest lap and opened up a 1.1 second gap to 2nd placed Mark Webber. Hamilton was looking to apply pressure on Button. It seemed
that Button was holding his team mate up. However, as much as Whitmarsh boasted about preaching equality as far as his two drivers were concerned, even he was on tenterhooks, hoping that the two McLarens wouldn’t take each other out.
The Red Bulls were lapping much faster than Alonso’s Ferrari in 3rd place. On the lap before, Vettel was half a second quicker than Webber, who in turn was half a second quicker than Alonso. Michael Schumacher, surprisingly, based on the credentials
of his Mercedes and his below-par form this year, was lapping at a similar pace to the McLarens in front of him. He was just 1.9 seconds behind Hamilton in the McLaren.
Further down the grid, Sutil was right on the back of Heidfeld as they battled for eighth place – A thrilling contest between Force India and BMW Sauber. A few seasons ago, who would have even suspected that such teams would ever have a chance of being ‘competitive’
in a sport that was deemed nothing short of an oligopoly (ruled by 2-3 teams).
Focusing on the front end again, Vettel and Webber were lapping comfortably quicker than the Ferrari and McLarens. They were close to half a second faster on each lap. Alonso was effectively 3.5 seconds behind Webber. Meanwhile, Schumacher had relaxed his
foot off the pedal and was no longer challenging the McLarens in front, the gap to Hamilton had increased by a couple of seconds.
Lap 14 saw Kobayashi go past Alguersuari to take the final point scoring position. The Mercedes of Rosberg was still struggling behind Buemi after his failed attempt on lap 8. However, things were not all bad for Mercedes. Michael Schumacher responded by
setting his personal fastest lap and the quickest third sector of the race. At the same time, the Red Bull of Vettel marginally pulled away from Webber as he had opened a 1.8 second gap.
Rosberg, owing to the fast lap by his teammate, pushed his car and was right up at the back of Buemi once again as he looked for a way past for 12th position. He was losing over a second a lap to Michael Schumacher and being stuck behind the Toro
Rosso was not helping matters.
News in the form of Alonso setting his personal fastest lap and the quickest third sector time brought some ‘positive’ attention back to the Italian team. After losing Massa, things looked rather gloomy in the scarlet camp. The Spaniard’s previous lap was
a touch quicker than Webber in front of him. The Ferrari driver further made his presence felt in the following lap as he managed to go quicker than both the Red Bull drivers. However, on a realistic note, it was a mere two tenths faster which was not enough
to significantly close the gap. On the flip side, it might have been a sign of good things to come for the third placed car – tyre wear issues for Red Bull?
Things were heating up. With no safety car to cope for the last 10 laps, the drivers had realized that they had to make their own luck and drive as fast and reliably as they could to match their targets.
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