Start to finish win for Vettel at Suzuka

F1 Grand Prix, GP Japan, Circuit Suzuka

Sebastian Vetel has won the Japanese Grand Prix thanks to a masterful drive all the way from the start to the finish. Button's championship lead is now cut to 16 points and everything is still possible. Jarno Trulli finished second, Lewis Hamilton third.

Since the final minutes of qualifying, the stewards have been handing out penalties for various reasons to several drivers. Button, Barrichello and Alonso all got a 5 place penalty for ignoring yellow flags during Q3.

Timo Glock will not compete due to a cut in his left leg. Mark Webber is starting from the pitlane.

As the lights went out, Vettel launched off the grid from his pole position, easily ahead of Hamilton who jumps ahead of Trulli. Nick Heidfeld is 4th, followed by Raikkonen, Barichello, Rosberg, Kovalainen.

Button meanwhile lost a place to Fisichella while Alonso gained one on Liuzzi. Mark Webber is again struck with bad luck as after one lap he came back into the pits to get his headrest fastened properly. Tape is applied in a second stop to make sure it doesn't come loose again and new prime tyres are fitted for the Australian. A further lap in the race, Webber is back with a puncture, ending up in last place, one lap down and with 3 pitstops completed after only 5 laps of racing.

Sebastian Vettel on the other hand is pulling away from Hamilton by 0.4s a lap while still being able to save a little bit of fuel and extend his first stint by one lap. Jarno Trulli in the Toyota is hanging on with Hamilton, only 1.5 seconds behind him by never really creating a threat.

Down in 8th place, Kovalainen is having a hard time fending off a lighter Sutil. On lap 14 however, Sutil puts up a challenge in the chicane and dives into the inside of the corner. Kovalainen did not want to give way through the right hander until they touched each other on the following left hand corner. Both drivers can continue, but the real winner here is Jenson Button who could jump both cars and end up with clear air ahead of him after the incident.

In lap 15, Hamilton is the first to make a pitstop. He switches to the harder tyre in 8.9s and rejoins in P9. The top qualifiers follow soon after, but Vettel is making it the longest first stint of them after having saved enough fuel to belate his stop by 2 laps.

It is remarkable how well the Red Bull is working here at Suzuka. Sebastian Vettel is consistently opening up the gap to Hamilton, but Mark Webber, even though in the far back of the field, is putting times in quicker than anybody else on a similar strategy.

On lap 33 Raikkonen puts in the fastest lap of the race so far, topping Vettel's previous quickest. The Finn is actually closing in on Heidfeld quickly and may attempt to finish 4th if his final stint on the option tyres works out well. Kimi made a stop of 9.2 seconds to take on the options again.

2 laps later Heidfeld is also in, and upon exit is already passed by Raikkonen. Heifeld now rejoins the track just ahead of Kubica, creating another problem for BMW Sauber as Kubia needs the pace to make sure he will end up ahead of Button at the end of the race. Frankly the team should order Heidfeld to let Kubica pass by since he has a pitstop to go anyway.

In second place, Jarno Trulli managed to jump Hamilton. A minor pit limiter problem on Hamilton's car may well have cost him second plac, but stil the race is not over yet.

Then only 9 laps from the end Alguersuari crashes of in 130R, fortunately without any harm for the Spaniard. The car is badly damaged though and debris around the track causes the safetycar to come out on track.

7 laps from the end, Mark WEbberho presumable completd his final stop is into the pitlane again. He takes on a new set of prime tyres.

The marshalls are having trouble getting the tyre wall back in place, requiring the safety car stay out longer than expected. This caused a 5-lap safety car, leaving 4 racing laps left for this Grand Prix.

Vettel makes the most of the restart and stays ahead easily, while Trulli also made a good job to make gap on Hamilton. The interesting pack is from 7th place where the two Brawns are leading Kubica, Alonso and Kovalainen, all extremely close to each other.

Despite the close fights, no positions changed anymore. The most important to take from this race is Vettel taking 10 points whereas Button only has one and Barrichello 2.