Rain, race abandonment and tragic accident at the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix

It just wasn't meant to be today. Although the rain didn't spoil the mood of the spectators on today's race Sunday - they are obviously tough - it did spoil normal driving and led to a tragic accident in the end. After the start had to be postponed due to heavy rain, it was finally delayed with the use of the safety car, but after only 2 of 53 laps it was over: red flag, race stopped, back to the pit lane and wait for the race to restart. After a long break, the race was restarted from the pit lane behind the safety car.

Premature end for Alonso
On lap 3/53 Alonso, who had a bad weekend anyway, was caught out by the fact that Ferrari had hired Sebastian Vettel for next year and he was now practically without a team for 2015: the lights on the steering wheel went out, the water had obviously affected the electrics too much, and the Spaniard was out on the third lap.

Until lap 9, the drivers had to be patient and drive nicely behind the safety car due to the rain, which, however, became weaker with each lap, the drivers pushed for the restart and this then also promptly took place in lap 9 with Nico Rosberg at the top in front of Hamilton. The rain was now decreasing more and more. This was reason enough for a good 10 drivers to pit on lap 12 to change from the rain tires to intermediates. However, shortly afterwards the intermediates still seemed a little slower than the rain tires, but with each lap things got better for them. On lap 13, the remaining drivers followed to the pits for the tire change.

Driver field round 14
Order from the top: Rosberg, Hamilton, Bianchi, Button, Massa, Vettel, Ricciardo, Magnussen, Raikkonen, Hülkenberg, Kvyat, Perez, Maldonado, Kobayashi, Chilton...

Vettel seemed to cope better with the conditions with each lap and was able to overtake Massa on lap 16. Ricciardo also set about overtaking, but failed at first, having to be patient until he was also able to pass Massa a lap later. On lap 18, Vettel now also caught Bottas, who also had to admit defeat to Ricciardo a little later. The Red Bull team had thus bagged the Williams drivers. At the same time, Hamilton was able to close the gap to the leading Rosberg.

Raikkonen lost a lot of time at the pit stop: 11.1 seconds instead of the usual 2-3 seconds standing time threw the remaining Ferrari driver further back. Now the DRS was also released and Hamilton got pretty close to stablemate Rosberg: gap 0.494 sec. Hamilton was obviously faster than Rosberg and wanted to overtake him, but in the weather conditions that was not so easy.

Hamilton overtakes Rosberg
That's how it had to happen, as you know it from Hamilton. Impatience drove him off the track, which was too slippery, but he was immediately back on Rosberg's tail. Now it became increasingly clear that Hamilton was a lot faster than Rosberg, who in turn complained to his engineers over the radio about understeer. It was not until lap 29 that the time finally came: Hamilton was able to pass Rosberg with a clean maneuver and immediately pulled away strongly.

It was also clear from the current ranking that Vettel had been able to make up a lot of time on Button, who had already held on to an exceptional third place for a very long time in his Mc Laren. Then Vettel went into the pits and changed to intermediates again. Rosberg was driving too slowly at this point, and it was even feared that he would not make it onto the podium this time.

On lap 32 Button came into the pits, but he also had problems, his downtime was 6.9 seconds! This cost him valuable time and a place, because Vettel was able to pass him, who also set the fastest lap of the day. On lap 34, Rosberg also pitted, with a time of 3.8 seconds. Button now set the fastest lap with 1.51.721.

Now Hamilton also pitted and delivered a reasonable time with a standing time of 3.0 seconds. Ricciardo followed this procedure on lap 37 and also changed tires. Now the castling of the leading 5-man team was perfect.

On lap 38, Button "allowed" himself an involuntary trip into the green zone, but managed to get back on track, losing a good 5 seconds to Rosberg. His teammate Ricciardo obviously had to be up for it, as he had closed the gap to Button by lap 40 and was within striking distance of the Briton. Ricciardo set off on an overtaking maneuver, overtook Button, but Button fought back and overtook Ricciardo in turn. Meanwhile, the rain picked up again. Magnussen therefore pitted and changed to rain tires as a precaution. On lap 42, the time had finally come: Ricciardo was able to pass Button with a skilful overtaking maneuver. Shortly afterwards, Sauber driver Adrian Sutil crashed into the tire pile, prompting another safety period. With the safety car out, many drivers took the opportunity to pit. On lap 46, the field was still led by the safety car. People wondered why the emergency services were unable to recover Sutil's car, which was still hanging around the scene of the accident. In the meantime, Bianchi must also have crashed in the same place as Sutil. As it turned out later, Bianchi had crashed sideways into the tractor that was supposed to transport Sutil's car away. Shortly thereafter, the unconscious Jules Bianchi was first taken to the hospital by helicopter later by car. Shortly afterwards, the signal was given again: Red Flag - race stopped, again the drivers had to go to the pit lane behind the safety car. A short time later the race was finally stopped. Obviously, Jules Bianchi's serious accident was too much for the race organizers, who decided to finally abandon a race that was already difficult to conduct. It is therefore no surprise to anyone that there was no real joy on the winners' podium, the drivers themselves were too shocked by the accident news of their popular racing driver colleague.

This was also a miserable race weekend for Ferrari: On the one hand, the de facto ejection of showcase race driver Alonso and, on the other, the fact that Ferrari finished a race without points for the first time since 2010, not really a good omen. We can and will only hope that the signs are better again for the formula at the next race in Sotchi, Russia, in a week's time.