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It’s difficult to remember the last time a Red-Bull missed out on the lead in the very first lap. The Japanese Grand Prix offered that very bit of intrigue coupled with a lot of excitement for a packed house in the stands. It was a race that had quite a few interesting battles down the grid ultimately came down to strategy that had the podium order doing a flip-flop. Though the Red-Bulls had a best result possible with a 1/2 finish, Romain Grosjean would be ruing his chances for an elusive first Grand Prix victory, which doesn’t seem far away considering his recent transformation.
Red-Bull had a 1-2 finish at the Japanese GP, their second of the season after a controversial first one in Malaysia
Team Red-Bull though had a challenge in deciding the pit-stop strategy for both their drivers. In the end, it was a two stopper for Vettel and three-stop one for Mark Webber and it ended well for the Milton Keynes constructor. While it proved right in the case of Vettel and helped him to take the lead from Grosjean and the win, Mark Webber was unfortunate to handover the race before eventually taking away second spot from the Frenchman in the penultimate lap. There was hardly any other driver that looked like challenging the three-podium finishers with Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen finishing over 40 seconds behind.
Sebastian Vettel celebrates his fifth consecutive win and ninth of the season at the Japanese GP
Probably for the first time in the season Vettel looked like he was in some trouble with a poor start to the race as he slipped to third heading into the first corner. But the German was patient as he put in some hard laps with good pace to keep abreast with his teammate and Grosjean. He managed his tyres well which was also one of the key to his win combined with support from the Pit crew keeping his spirits high(“You have good pace, Don’t go bananas” came the message).
The Champion was hard to be kept down as he went fastest on quite a few occasions even though he locked up at the chicanes a few times as his tyres started to wear out. It was the second stop that helped him to move into the lead, having an extended run post his first pit-stop. He made his move on Grosjean on lap 41 and then followed it up with some fast laps and good tyre management that kept him ahead of his teammate and helped to win the race with a 7 second advantage.
With the win, the virtually crowned four time world champion moved into an elite panel of drivers winning five consecutive Grand prix’s(it was also his ninth win of the calendar) in a season behind his countryman Michael Schumacher. The Indian GP will most likely host its first championship deciding race as Vettel needs to finish fifth or higher to be crowned the Champion of the World again.
Mark Webber
Mark Webber’s luck continued to betray him as he finished second behind his teammate at the Japanese GP
What would it take to for Webber to win a race in his final year in the sport? The best possible answer to the question is the bad luck getting transferred from Webber to his teammate. The Australian had been in a good form lately but luck betrayed him in the last couple of races with no fault of his own. He had the opportunity in Japan after starting from pole but lost the lead to Grosjean before the first corner. He followed Grosjean quite closely before stopping early with a three-stop strategy on the cards. That’s probably what cost him in what could have been win ahead of Vettel as Red-Bull switched to a two-stopper for the German.
Webber wasn’t pleased with the result as he could have been atop the podium with a two-stopper. Despite the contentious issue, the other reason for his second place was Grosjean, as the Frenchman defended well and kept Webber behind for a good 10 laps, before Webber overtook him in the dying stages of the race. An earlier pass could have seen the veteran Australian challenge his teammate for the win. The Australian now has 4 races to get a much awaited win since his last victory at Silverstone in 2012.
