Jenson needs 5 points more than team mate, and main championship rival, Rubens Barrichello in this weekends Japanese Grand Prix in order to win the drivers title.
The developments of the weekends GP tell another story as the grid was constantly changing throughout the race.
As the five red lights disappeared, the race was "go go go". Rosberg was straight up the outside of Vettel into the first corner allowing him to take second position. This was a damaging blow to Vettel's championship race but it did not stop him pushing as hard as he could. He was not going to let the Rosberg and Hamilton out his sights and he was pushing the car to its limits, and it was working, as the top three were a tight pack.
Mark Webber made an illegal pass on Fernando Alonso at turn seven very early in the race. Webber passed Alonso on the outside of the corner whilst going over the curbs, giving him a better run out of the corner. Webber later was told over the radio he had to allow Alonso past, but to also allow Timo Glock past as he had also overtaken Alonso's Renault. This dropped him down to sixth place.
Rosberg made a fatal error on lap nineteen by crossing the white line from the pit lane exit, only to re-enter. He did not gain any advantage, but the race officials deemed it illegal and still gave him the drive through penalty. This drastically damaged his chances of winning the race. Before the incident he was pressing hard and right on the tail of race leader Lewis Hamilton.
It got worse for Rosberg as Adrian Sutil and make Nick Heidfeld make contact on lap 21. Sutil was constantly trying to pass rookie Jamie Alguersuari, but as Sutil went for the pass at turn 14 he hit a dusty section of track causing him to spin. Whilst carrying on the spin to return to the track, he hit the back on Heidfeld's BMW, snapping Heidfeld's rear axle and taking off Sutil's entire nosecone. Heidfeld was forced to retire, but Sutil managed to return to the pits to have a replacement nosecone.
The safety car was then called for as there was a load of debris covering the track. It made it worse for Rosberg as he was yet to take his drive through and could not do it till the safety car had returned to the pits. Although this had helped Button as he watched other drivers fuel evaporate while he continued on. This helped him up to eighth place with Kovalainen in Brawn sandwich.
Jamie Alguersuari recreated the pit lane incident with Massa last season at Singapore. Alguersuari left the pit lane with the fuel hose still attached. After watching the replay you can see that he left on his own accord and did not wait for the lollypop to be lifted.
Button continued to push and managed to gain fifth place, due to a better race strategy than Barrichello. The day became even worse for Vettel. He was given a drive through penalty for speeding in the pit lane and then to make things worse, he damaged his rear diffuser whilst going wide and hitting the curb, which would drastically reduce his speed. This could of ended his race but he continued to fight on and was racing for fourth or fifth place due to their strategy.
To make things worse for Red Bull, Mark Webber had brake failure. A big cloud of black brake dust was showing from his car before it finally gave up and forced him into a spin at turn one on lap 45. He managed to control the car to end up rear first into the barrier. His title race is now completely over as he is 32.5 points behind leader Jenson with only three races remaining.
On lap forty-seven there was a surprise double retirement for Toro Rosso as they were having brake failure and did not risk the rest of the race.
The race finished with an unsuspecting Timo Glock placed in second. He was quiet throughout the race and that podium finish will keep the bosses of Toyota happy back in Japan. Alonso was placed in third (and he did not cheat) which again was surprising as he was kept quite throughout the race. But the day belonged to Lewis Hamilton as he gave a spectacular drive with no faults from either his side or the pit team.
After the race, the incident involving Sutil and Heidfeld was resolved with Sutil handed a £12,500 fine. When Heidfeld was asked what his team was going to do next, he replied "Maybe we try find a brain for him [Sutil]".
Nico Rosberg, who, for the majority of the race was in second place, also apologised to the team after finishing in eleventh place. "Williams gave me a car to fight for the win" the German said. This performance will again go down on Williams record of having a fast car for qualifying, but when the race arrived they cannot perform.
Race Result:
1. Lewis Hamilton
2. Timo Glock
3. Fernando Alonso
4. Sebastian Vettel
5. Jenson Button
6. Rubens Barrichello
7. Heikki Kovalainen
8. Robert Kubica
9. Kazuki Nakajima
10. Kimi Raikkonen
11. Nico Rosberg
12. Jarno Trulli
13. Giancarlo Fisichella
14. Vitantonio Liuzzi
RET. Jamie Alguersuari
RET. Sebastian Buemi
RET. Mark Webber
RET. Adrian Sutil
RET. Nick Heidfeld
RET. Romain Grosjean
This post is dedicated to Matt Mansfield
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