Formula 1 - Japanese Grand Prix 2013

One highlight of this Sunday in Suzuka is Romain Grosjean: The Lotus driver not only repeated his 3rd podium finish from South Korea, but he also made the race exciting by clearly overtaking Sebstian Vettel at the start and leading the race for most of it, thus preventing Red Bull's classic start-finish victory. Red Bull, on the other hand, impressively proved that it not only has excellent drivers and vehicles, but also excellent race strategists, without whose clever intervention Sebastian Vettel's victory today might not have been possible.

Start important sticking point
The start is different from the last few races and is the starting point for a lot of tension in the course of the race. The double-lined Red Bulls in 1st and 2nd don't get off to a good start. Romain Grosjean easily manages to pass Sebastian Vettel on the right and take the lead. Lewis Hamilton on Mercedes tries to weave his way between the two Red Bulls, gets past, but is caught by Vettel's front left wing on the right rear wheel, so he has to pit for a tire change. It's Romain Grosjean leading after the start in 1, followed by Mark Webber in 2 and Sebastian Vettel in 3. Bianchi and van der Garde fly out at the first corner, triggering a safety period. And an unusual picture presents itself: Lotus drives away at the front without being threatened by the Red Bulls, and pulls out a gap of around 2 seconds on Webber and 6 seconds on Vettel. From lap 9 onwards, Button, Sutil and Bottas are the first drivers to come into the pits to change tires, while Hamilton is immediately out of the race. Due to the tire damage after the contact with Vettel at the start, the underbody was obviously damaged, which made it impossible to continue. And the bad luck at Mercedes was also to affect Rosberg. As he was about to leave the pits, Perez came in and almost shot him down. The result: a drive-through penalty for Rosberg for unsafe release. Really bad luck for Mercedes this weekend. As a result, the race revolves around 4th-7th place on the one hand and the battle for the top spot between Lotus and Red Bull on the other. Alonso overtakes his stablemate Massa on lap 20, who put up a valiant fight against it laps earlier. Soon after, Alonso also catches Sauber driver Hülkenberg, who was again driving successfully. With a sophisticated tire strategy, the Red Bulls take on the Lotus. After his 2nd pit stop, Webber catches up to the leading Grosjean by about 9 seconds, while Vettel stays out longer. When Grosjean has to pit, Webber overtakes him. And when Vettel pits, he comes out about 3.5 seconds behind Grosjean and catches Grosjean, who fights back hard on laps 39/40. Despite a lead of about 14 seconds, Webber pits again on lap 42 and comes out 4-5 seconds behind Grosjean. Thanks to new tires, the Australian gets within 1.8 seconds of Grosjean on the lap. It is still a question of time before Webber also manages to pass Grosjean on the new tires. After 53 laps, in bright sunshine, it's a one-two for Red Bull. But Sebastian Vettel is not yet world champion, Alonso prevented that with his 4th place, which he fought hard for.

Lotus can also count itself lucky this race weekend, having left its rivals Mercedes behind. Grosjean in particular was very pleased: "Today was simply a very, very good race. What a start! It was great to overtake both Red Bulls just like that, it will be one of my best memories of this year and it's really nice to be on the podium again." And Kimi Räikkönen was also quite happy with his race, even though he had problems at the start and lost a few places, he was able to work his way forward well during the race and eventually took 5th place. And for the Swiss Sauber team, 6th and 7th places are also a real reason to celebrate and a real birthday present for Peter Sauber, who celebrates his 70th birthday today. Team Principal Monisha Kaltenborn commented after the race: "This is a fantastic result, especially on Peter's birthday. We hope he is happy about it. Once again, both drivers showed very strong performances. The result shows that we're working in the right direction, which gives us a lot of confidence for the final races, where we can still achieve a lot." For Gutierrez in particular, it was a relief and a satisfaction: "Finally, I can have a feeling of satisfaction after a race." The 4th place, on the other hand, does not really make Alonso happy, apart from the fact that he could not really compete for the victory, no especially in terms of the world championship: "The fight for the title is still open, maybe for one more race. But even if Sebastian is always out from now on, I would have to win all the races at the same time," Alonso says with a laugh after the fifth-last race of the season.

Japan Grand Prix 2013 standings

1 Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull Racing, 1:26:49.301 25
2 Mark Webber, Red Bull Racing, +7.1 secs 18
3 Romain Grosjean, Lotus, +9.9 secs 15
4 Fernando Alonso, Ferrari, +45.6 secs 12
5 Kimi Raikkonen, Lotus, +47.3 secs 10
6 Nico Hülkenberg, Sauber, +51.6 secs 8
7 Esteban Gutierrez, Sauber, +71.6 secs 6
8 Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, +72.0 secs 4
9 Jenson Button, McLaren, +80.8 secs 2
10 Felipe Massa, Ferrari, +89.2 secs 1
11 Paul di Resta, Force India, +98.5 secs
12 Jean-Eric Vergne, Toro Rosso, +1 lap
13 Daniel Ricciardo, Toro Rosso, +1 lap
14 Adrian Sutil, Force India, +1 lap
15 Sergio Perez, McLaren, +1 lap
16 Pastor Maldonado, Williams, +1 lap
17 Valtteri Bottas, Williams, +1 lap
18 Charles Pic, Caterham, +1 lap
19 Max Chilton, Marussia, +1 lap
Out of service
Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, damage
Giedo van der Garde, Caterham, accident
Jules Bianchi, Marussia, accident