Japanese Grand Prix 2011

With his third place finish, Sebastian Vettel secured his place in the record books as the youngest two time champion in F1. The cynic would say that the fight between Button’ McLaren and Alonso’s Ferrari for the top step of the podium was well scripted for the television cameras. It may have looked good for the respective fans, but the season is effectively over.

Vettel captured another pole position in qualifying, demonstrating that the gap between the chassis has never really been closed and he did push as hard during the start as any other race this season. But when you have to finish only in tenth to put it away, you know that you don’t need to put everything on the limit and make a silly mistake. McLaren lobbied a protest against the way Vettel started the race which ended with Button on the grass, but even the stewards just saw it as more of the same whining from the Woking team and decided that doing nothing was in the sport’s best interest.

Mark Webber assumed his normal role as second fiddle on the team and finished in fourth place, not that the team is worried about missing out on both titles.

Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa tangled again, this time the British driver escaped with the lesser damages and went on to finish in fifth place. The long suffering Brazilian driver finished in seventh, not impressing any of the powers that be (cough, cough, Luca, cough, cough) in Maranello.

Michael Schumacher fans rejoiced in the face that the rain-meister finished ahead of Nico Rosberg, but his sixth place finish didn’t fool anyone. The focus has shifted from the older generation of German drivers to the younger one. Vettel’s title established that he’s not a one hit wonder. It will be up to Adrian Newey to see if there is a third title in those wings.

Sergio Perez finished in eighth in the Sauber, ahead of the lackluster Renault of Vitaly Petrov. Nico Rosberg’s tenth place finish was not exactly the celebratory finish Mercedes was looking for 125 years after they invented the automobile, but to their credit, they are still in the game.

With the title decided at this point, the real question will be how many people still show up at the remaining four races. Korea is this weekend, so there is the chance that those fans will still see the celebratory buzz from this weekend. The real challenge will be at the end of the month when the circus moves to the India subcontinent to New Delhi. Expect the corporate fans to show up, but the rest of the stands could be interesting or embarrassing to the race promoters. There are reasons why this sport has been labeled as more of a circus…

Race Results

1	BUTTON	McLaren-Mercedes	1h30m53.427s
2	ALONSO	Ferrari	+ 1.1s
3	VETTEL	RBR-Renault	+ 2.0s
4	WEBBER	RBR-Renault	+ 8.0s
5	HAMILTON	McLaren-Mercedes	+ 24.2s
6	SCHUMACHER	Mercedes	+ 27.1s
7	MASSA	Ferrari	+ 28.2s
8	PEREZ	Sauber-Ferrari	+ 39.3s
9	PETROV	Renault	+ 42.6s
10	ROSBERG	Mercedes	+ 44.3s
11	SUTIL	Force India-Mercedes	+ 54.4s
12	DI RESTA	Force India-Mercedes	+ 62.3s
13	KOBAYASHI	Sauber-Ferrari	+ 63.7s
14	MALDONADO	Williams-Cosworth	+ 64.1s
15	ALGUERSUARI	STR-Ferrari	+ 66.6s
16	SENNA	Renault	+ 72.6s
17	BARRICHELLO	Williams-Cosworth	+ 74.1s
18	KOVALAINEN	Lotus-Renault	+ 87.8s
19	TRULLI	Lotus-Renault	+ 96.1s
20	GLOCK	Virgin-Cosworth	+ 2 laps
21	D’AMBROSIO	Virgin-Cosworth	+ 2 laps
22	RICCIARDO	HRT-Cosworth	+ 2 laps
23	LIUZZI	HRT-Cosworth	+ 3 laps
24	BUEMI	STR-Ferrari	+ 42 laps, wheel
Fastest Lap	BUTTON	McLaren-Mercedes	1m36.568s

Note – Kobayashi was promoted from 10th to seventh on the grid. Although, like Schumacher, Senna and Petrov, he failed to set a Q3 time, he did start a qualifying lap and was therefore positioned ahead of the other three on the grid.

Driver’s Championship Standings

1	VETTEL	RBR-Renault	324 Points
2	BUTTON	McLaren-Mercedes	210 Points
3	ALONSO	Ferrari	202 Points
4	WEBBER	RBR-Renault	194 Points
5	HAMILTON	McLaren-Mercedes	178 Points
6	MASSA	Ferrari	90 Points
7	ROSBERG	Mercedes	63 Points
8	SCHUMACHER	Mercedes	60 Points
9	PETROV	Renault	36 Points
10	HEIDFELD	Renault	34 Points
11	SUTIL	Force India-Mercedes	28 Points
12	KOBAYASHI	Sauber-Ferrari	27 Points
13	DI RESTA	Force India-Mercedes	20 Points
14	ALGUERSUARI	STR-Ferrari	16 Points
15	PEREZ	Sauber-Ferrari	13 Points
16	BUEMI	STR-Ferrari	13 Points
17	BARRICHELLO	Williams-Cosworth	4 Points
18	SENNA	Renault	2 Points
18	MALDONADO	Williams-Cosworth	1 Point

Constructor’s Championship Standings

1	RBR-RENAULT	518 Points
2	McLAREN-MERCEDES	388 Points
3	FERRARI	292 Points
4	MERCEDES	123 Points
5	RENAULT	72 Points
6	FORCE INDIA-MERCEDES	48 Points
7	SAUBER-FERRARI	40 Points
8	STR-FERRARI	29 Points
9	WILLIAMS-COSWORTH	5 Points