VETTEL SCORCHES TO JAPAN VICTORY
Button lead cut with two races to go
JENSON BUTTON edged closer to World Championship glory as Sebastian Vettel kept in the hunt by scorching to victory in the Japanese Grand Prix today.
The British ace finished eighth at Suzuka just one place behind Brawn GP team-mate and rival Rubens Barrichello.
Button saw his lead over the Brazilian cut to 14 points with just two races left.
German Vettel is two points further back heading to the next race in Brazil in two weeks time.
Button will be crowned champion if he is 10 points ahead of his two rivals after the race at Sao Paulo.
Red Bull racer Vettel kept the championship as a three way fight with a crushing win by 4.8seconds from Toyota's Jarno Trulli.
Reigning champ Lewis Hamilton finished third for McLaren Mercedes.
The 53 lap race took a dramatic twist eight laps from the finish.
Toro Rosso rookie Jaime Alguersuari smashed into a advertising hoarding at the feared 200mph 130R corner - one of the fastest on the F1 calendar.
The Spaniard then careered into the tyre wall sending debris all over the track and his front left wheel bouncing along the track.
Alguersuari, 19, said on the radio: "I crashed, I crashed, I lost control. I'm OK."
He got out of the car but was then taken away from the smash on a stretcher.
Race officials were forced to send the safety car out as marshals cleared up the bits of the smashed car bringing the field together.
Button had just moved into eighth spot and looked set to challenge his team-mate in the closing laps.
But Button was unable to make a move when the safety car released the drivers to race again four laps from the chequered flag.
The Frome flier had to spend his final lap defending eighth spot from BMW's Robert Kubica who was looming large in his mirror.
Button had lined up 10th on the grid - four places behind Barrichello - after qualifying ended in a farce.
The duo both picked up five place grid penalties along with a clutch of other drivers.
But under the rules - which is determined in order of offence - Barrrichello ended up moving up one place from his original qualifying slot of seventh and Button went back one place.
Button made a nightmare start and dropped to 11th but regained one place on lap three when he sliced his way inside Kubica at the Casio Triangle.
The same spot was to give his title hopes a massive lift 11 laps later after he had cleverly opted not to get involved when Force India's Adrian Sutil set off in pursuit of McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen.
Sutil, who has a reputation for crazy moves, tried to force his way past the Finn who refused to give up his place.
The pair crashed sending Sutil into a spin and as Kovalainen tried to regain momentum Button slipped past to inherit two vital spots and move into a points scoring position.
Hamilton was in second behind runaway leader Vettel for much of the race on Suzuka's famous figure-of-eight track.
But lightning work by the Toyota pit crew saw Trulli - who had stayed out two laps longer before his final stop - leapfrog Hamilton on lap 39 to snatch second spot.
Italian Trulli was the only Toyota car running in front of the team's home fans with Timo Glock sidelined by his smash in qualifying which left him with a gashed leg.
Vettel's victory was his third of the season and fourth of his career while team-mate Mark Webber had a nightmare stopping five times with technical problems.
This article has 2 comments
I too am tired of F1. It seems about as honest as the labour government and seems today to consist of nothing more than driving around in circles in cars all identical to each other. In the good old days technology would introduce brilliant ideas and each year the cars got faster. Today nothing is allowed in the belief that if all the cars are equal the competition will be between the drivers. The fact that the drivers are not all equal does not seem to have occurred to anyone. As a sport its ludicrous. Removing the cork from the champagne magnum is more dangerous than F1 racing. It used to be a test bed for the car industry. Today its nothing but a rich mans game with the outcome of each race questionable.
By jonte. Posted October 4 2009 at 1:19 PM.
i've watched formula 1 for years and this season the rule changes were meant to make it more interesting but frankly i'm bored stiff. i can't be bothered to get up at silly o clock to watch anymore.
glad jenson's winning an all that but even he's rubbish.
By james g. Posted October 4 2009 at 9:32 AM.