SEBASTIAN REIGNS SUPREME IN SUZUKA

  SUZUKA CITY, Mie Prefecture, Japan – Sebastian Vettel worked a brave two-stop strategy to claim his ninth win of the season at Suzuka. Teammate Mark Webber finished second, ahead of Lotus' Romain Grosjean, to hand the team its second 1-2 finish of the year.

Neither driver made it easy, however, as when the lights went out at the start, both Mark, in pole position, and Seb, starting second, got away badly.

Grosjean, meanwhile, had made an excellent start, as had Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton and they passed either side of Sebastian on the approach to turn one.

Hamilton's rear right tire then clipped Seb's wing. While Seb luckily escaped intact, the Mercedes man suffered a puncture, damage from which forced him to retire a few laps later.

Out of turn one, Grosjean led with Mark second and Sebastian third. That caused a few heads to be scratched on the pit wall and soon Seb was being told to pace himself and save tires in order to go longer in his first stint. He dropped back from Mark, who was busy chasing the leading Lotus.

Mark made his first visit to the pits on lap 11, followed a lap later by Grosjean. Vettel, though, stayed out for a further three laps hoping to push on ahead of a planned long second stint.

Seb again dropped to third behind leader Grosjean and Mark, and then again set about managing his hard tires through a marathon 23-lap stint.

When Mark pitted for the second time from second place on lap 25, Seb was the told to pressure Grosjean. He did the job admirably, and when the Frenchman eventually made his second and final stop on lap 29 there was nothing between him and Seb in P2.

Mark was showing his pace however, and armed with fresher tires than his teammate began to reel the champion in.

On lap 37 it was time for Seb's second and final stop. He took on another set of hard tires and slotted into third, again behind Grosjean. He soon passed the Lotus on lap 40.

Mark made his final visit to the pit lane on lap 42, taking on medium tires in the hope that their better pace would allow him to close on Seb and fight for the lead. But coming up behind a slower Grosjean, he struggled to pass the defensive Lotus man for a number of laps.

Mark eventually got past on lap 51, but with just two tours left the gap to Seb was too great and he had to settle for second.

'A very rewarding win today; it's a great feeling,' said Seb of his fifth win on the trot and his fourth career victory at Suzuka. 'I love this track and it's just fantastic to win here.

'It was a horrible start to be honest. We found ourselves sitting in third place and then tried to go longer in the first stint,' he added. 'I had great traction after I got past Romain, and after that the only threat was Mark who got stuck behind Romain. We could then manage the gap until the end of the race.'

Mark admitted that it had been a close call between the two- and three-stop strategies.

'We were on the back foot a bit after Romain's great start,' he said. 'I wanted to put pressure on him for the win. Sebastian was on a different strategy to me, and in the end it worked out pretty similar. It's hard to know which was right (a two- or three-stop strategy), as we were trying to cover off Romain. I did my best and in the end it was a good result.'

Team Principal Christian Horner later labeled the drivers' achievement a 'massive result.'

'It was an exciting race that was dictated by the tire strategy,' he said. 'We split the strategies between a three-stop for Mark and a two-stop for Seb, based on the expected tire lives on the two cars. Both drivers managed to make it work to navigate their way past Romain Grosjean, in particularly brave moves down into turn one. A great result for the Team and both Championships and congratulations to Renault for another one, two three finish on the podium. A massive result for the team to achieve a one two in Japan.'

The result, and the fact that Seb's chief title rival Fernando Alonso only managed fourth place behind Grosjean, means that the defending champion now has a 90-point lead over the Spaniard with just four races of the season left.

Seb, while aware of the title situation, said he is trying not to think about the possibility of claiming a fourth title in succession at India's Buddh International Circuit in a fortnight.

'The Championship is the big target of course, but the season is very long still, and the best way to wrap it up is not to think about it,' he said. 'I'm happy to go home for a bit now and to relax before we go out to India. That's an impressive country and I'm looking forward to racing there in a couple of weeks.'

Team Reactions

Car 1 Sebastian Vettel, Finish Position: 1st, Start Position: 2nd
'A very rewarding win today; it's a great feeling. I love this track and it's just fantastic to win here. It was a horrible start to be honest. We found ourselves sitting in third place and then tried to go longer in the first stint. I had great traction after I got past Romain and after that the only threat was Mark who got stuck behind Romain. We could then manage the gap until the end of the race. The Championship is the big target of course, but the season is very long still and the best way to wrap it up is not to think about it. I'm happy to go home for a bit now and to relax before we go out to India. That's an impressive country and I'm looking forward to racing there in a couple of weeks.'

Car 2 Mark Webber, Finish Position: 2nd, Start Position: 1st
'We were on the back foot a bit after Romain's great start. I wanted to put pressure on him for the win. Sebastian was on a different strategy to me and in the end it worked out pretty similar. It's hard to know which was right a two or three-stop strategy, as we were trying to cover off Romain. I did my best and in the end it was a good result.'

Christian Horner, Team Principal
'A massive result for the team to achieve a one-two in Japan. It was an exciting race that was dictated by the tire strategy. We split the strategies between a three-stop for Mark and a two-stop for Seb, based on the expected tire lives on the two cars. Both drivers managed to make it work to navigate their way past Romain Grosjean, in particularly brave moves down into Turn one. A great result for the Team and both Championships and congratulations to Renault for another one-two-three finish on the podium.'

Thierry Salvi, Renault
'A perfect result for Renault today, and great to see us up there represented on the podium. We split strategies today for Mark and Seb and got a 1-2, which is of course good news for the Championship. However there are still four races to go so we'll remain focused on the job in hand.'posted on conceptcarz.com

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