Formula One Highlights: Japanese Grand Prix, Raceday Part 4
Welcome back to the highlights of the race that conspired at the Suzuka circuit in Japan. Nearly all the drivers had made their first scheduled stop and were looking to take advantage of the new rubber.
Michael Schumacher was battling hard with his team mate Rosberg for the eighth position. The German looked a touch like his old self during the weekend, however, his lack of patience and complete disregard for driver safety has made him rather unpopular
this season.
Jenson Button was able to set his personal fastest lap – 4 tenths quiker than Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton. The Ferrari responded in the next lap as Alonso set the fastest lap of the race with quickest second and third sector times. Meanwhile, Schumacher
and Rosberg continued their battle for position. They approached on some backmarkers and got right past – Schumacher might have hoped for Rosberg stumbling on one of them. It appeared that Rosberg was merely holding up Schumi as the latter was on a fresher
set of tyres as Rosberg pit-ed earlier during the safety car period an the beginning of the race.
Turning our attention towards the front of the pack, Mark Webber and Fernando Alonso were closing in on Sebastian Vettel. The Australian Red Bull driver was a mere 1.3 seconds behind his team mate. Jenson Button, in a sudden reversal of fortune, was lapping
slower than Alonso and Hamilton.
Vettel responded and set his personal fastest lap. Button was 14 seconds ahead of Hamilton – Not enough to pit and come ahead of his team mate. However, since his tyres were a lot older than his team mate, he had little margin to experiment with his pit
strategy. At the back of the field, Yamamoto left the racing line and dived into the pits, finally allowing Glock a clear path – How the Virgin driver looked to make use of the relatively empty track was upto him now.
Elsewhere, Michael Schumacher had given himself some air from Rosberg and was not battling like he was a few laps ago. Whether it was a tactical decision or the German just didn’t want to risk his engine was hard to say at that point in time. Lewis Hamilton
on the other hand, set the fastest time for lap 36. He was just 2.9 seconds behind Fernando Alonso and was catching up quickly as the race headed for lap 37.
Sebastian Vettel had caught right up with Jenson Button – just a 1.3 second gap seperated them. This could mean two things; firstly, the Red Bull was just plain dominant on the day which meant that the McLaren stood little chance lapping faster. Another
reason could’ve been Button experiencing tyre ware issues. Since the rest of the pack was catching up, it looked rather unnecessary to stay on track for that long and on those set of Bridgestones.
The 2nd McLaren was having much better luck in the speed department as Hamilton continued to chip away the gap to Alonso. However, the very next lap, Alonso responded to Hamilton’s pace. He set his personal fastest first sector time and went on
to lap marginally quicker than the McLaren after all three sectors.
The start of Lap 39 saw the McLaren of Jenson Button finally heading for the pits. Sebastian Vettel claimed his spot and effectively the race lead. The Briton rejoined the track in 5th, ahead of Kobayashi, who stopped for a new set of rubber as
well. He reentered the race in 12th position. The BMW Sauber driver had risen to the challenge of racing in front of his home fans and pushing his car to the limit – To make something out of nothing. It was an impressive drive as things stood, the
Suzuka crowd was hoping for a top 10 finish for their local hero. Was the driver was able to live up to expectations after the entire race distance?
Read on, to find out.
Stay tuned…
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