Formula 1
JAPANESE GP – RACE RESULTS: ANOTHER WIN FOR VETTEL—
SEBASTIAN VETTEL :“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.”
MARK WEBBER:
“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.”
“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.”
Romain Grosjean:
“It’s really good to be back on the podium again.”
“Today was just a very, very good race. What a start! It was superb to go past both the Red Bulls like that and it’ll be one of my best memories of the year. The car was fantastic on the first set of tyres and we managed to pull away, but then the Red Bulls were able to reel us in later on. Ultimately, we were the only car to almost catch the bull. It’s been a great home race for my engineer; it’s always good to come to Japan and it’s really good to be back on the podium again.”
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 tyre strategy. We split the strategies between a three-stop for Mark and a two-stop for Seb, based on the expected tyre 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.”
PROVISIONAL RACE RESULTS The Japanese Grand Prix Suzuka, Japan; 53 laps; 307.471km; Weather: Dry. Classified: Pos Driver Team Time 1. Sebatian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1h37m410s 2. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault +7.1s 3. Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault +9.9s 4. Fernando Alonso Ferrari +45.6s 5. Kimi Raikkonen Lotus-Renault +47.3s 6. Nico Hulkenberg Sauber-Ferrari +51.6s 7. Esteban Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari +1m11.6s 8. Nico Rosberg Mercedes +1m12.0s 9. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes +1m20.8s 10. Felipe Massa Ferrari +1m29.2s 11. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes +1m38.5s 12. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari +1 lap 13. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari +1 lap 14. Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes +1 lap 15. Sergio Perez McLaren-Mercedes +1 lap 16. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault +1 lap 17. Valtteri Bottas Williams-Renault +1 lap 18. Charlies Pic Caterham-Renault +1 lap 19. Max Chilton Marussia-Cosworth +1 lap Fastest lap: Mark Webber, 1m34.587s Not classified/retirements: Driver Team On lap Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 9 Giedo van der Garde Caterham-Renault 0 Jules Bianchi Marussia-Cosworth 0 World Championship standings, round 15: Drivers: Constructors: 1. Vettel 297 1. Red Bull-Renault 445 2. Alonso 207 2. Ferrari 297 3. Raikkonen 177 3. Mercedes 277 4. Hamilton 151 4. Lotus-Renault 264 5. Webber 148 5. McLaren-Mercedes 83 6. Rosberg 126 6. Force India-Mercedes 62 7. Massa 90 7. Sauber-Ferrari 55 8. Grosjean 87 8. Toro Rosso-Ferrari 31 9. Button 60 9. Williams-Renault 1 10. Hulkenberg 49 11. Di Resta 36 12. Sutil 26 13. Perez 23 14. Ricciardo 18 15. Vergne 13 16. Gutierrez 6 17. Maldonado 1