Vettel wins and revives championship

F1 Grand Prix, GP Japan, Circuit Suzuka

Sebastian Vettel has won the Japanese GP after leading it from start to finish. With the DNF of Fernando Alonso, this also means that he was able to close the gap to Alonso to a mere 4 points in the championship standings. The remaining Ferrari of Felipe Massa finished in second place while home here Kamui Kobayashi joined the podium in third place.

For the start of the sunny Japanese GP at Suzuka, Vettel starts from pole, ahead of Webber, Kobayashi, Grosjean, Pérez, Alonso.

As the lights went out, Vettel got off the line in the best manner and easily kept his pole, followed by Kobayashi who launched off the line a lot better than Mark Webber. Both Lotus cars however decided a mixup was appropriate, so Grosjean touched Webber in the first corner, both dropping back with minor car damage. Alonso on the other hand cut Raikkonen's way, eventually cutting the rear tyre of the Ferrari on the front wing of Raikkonen. The Fin's car was undamaged, but Alonso had to abandon after a spin in the first corner as a result of the incident.

Seconds later Rosberg also found himself facing the other way on the exit of turn 1, and for him as well the race came to an early end. Apparently he was pushed by Bruno Senna, who in the event broke his front wing.

After the incidents at the first corners, a safety car got deployed for 2 laps. Behind the SC, positions are VET KOB BUT MAS RAI HAM PERHUL MAL RIC.

When the safety car returned to the pits, Pérez was immediately eager to pass Raikkonen, but the Finn chose to defend on the inside of the first corner, pushing Pérez out on the dirty side of the track. Pérez went too wide through the corner and instead of passing Raikkonen, he had to let go a position to Lewis Hamilton.

On lap 6, Pérez passes Hamilton into the hairpin, nearly losing control of his own car, but thereby also leaving a struggling Hamilton to prey for Hulekberg, who is looking to attempt a pass himself.

By lap 11, Vettel has built up an advantage of 6 seconds to Kobayashi. The Japanese himself has 2 seconds in hand over Button who is closely shadowed by Massa. Raikkonen is 5th, 2.5 seconds behind the single remaining Ferrari but now only has Pérez closely behind him. The Sauber driver steadily drove away from Hamilton after passing him and is now looking to have a go for P5 again.

Meanwhile, Romain Grosjean was handed a 10 second stop-and-go for causing the collision with Mark Webber in turn 1. Webber by this time has moved up from last to 18th.

On lap 14 Button is the first to stop and changes to the hard tyre, just like Raikkonen. The Finn however is unlucky when returning to the track as he is immediately behind Kobvalainen and Jean-Eric Vergne, causing him to lose a lot of time in P11. While the Finn managed to pass half a lap later, Button is 8th after his stop and can easily build his advantage to the Lotus.

On lap 15 Kobayashi also pits and gets back on track , behind Ricciardo and ahead of Button.

Vettel and Massa only made their first stops on lap 18. Vettel rejoined in first place while MAssa got back on track a few seconds ahead of Kobayashi.

On lap19 Pérez is surprised to see Hamilton brake early for the hairpin. The Mexican is able to avoid an accident and takes the outside line on the approach, but he subsequently ended up on the dirty part of the track, causing him to spin off and get stuck in the gravel trap. It surely was an eventful race for him.

On lap 21 the stewards announced that Bruno Senna is given a drive-through penalty for the incident with Rosberg in turn 1 of lap 1. Senna at the time of the announcement is running in 13th place. Senna immediately completes his penalty one lap later and rejoins in 16th place.

On lap 27 Webber pits for his second stop after completing 26 laps on the hard tyres that were put on after lap 1. Webber was running in 9th and rejoined in 12th place.

At the same time, Michael Schumacher passes Di Resta on the inside of turn 1, one of the rare successful overtaking manouvres so far.

On lap 32 Kobayashi pits from P3 and rejoins in 5th place. Hamilton pits as well and gets back on track side by side with Raikkonen. Hamilton kept the inside and impressively managed to take 7th from Raikkonen, even on the cooler tyres.

Lap 34 is the last one for Narain Karthikeyan as he is pulled into the HRT pitbox.

The next several laps mark pitstops from Hamilton, Massa and Vettel, all without problems and all taking on a new set of hard tyres. One lap later Charles Pic is also out of the race for Marussia.

Hence, after lap 38, Vettel is still leading, ahead of MAS KOB BUT HAM RAI HUL MAL SCH WEB RIC DIR VER GRO SEN KOV GLO PET DLR.

The final part of the race is dominated by the fight between Kobayashi and Button. The difference between the two is about a second, but both are pushing hard. Kobayashi of course to secure his podium at his home race while Button is of course eager for the podium as well.

For tenth place there is also an interesting battle unfolding, although a little more spectacular as Schumacher there is just a few tenths behind Ricciardo. The Australian Toro Rosso driver is however fending off the challenges nicely.

On the penultimate lap, Vettel posts the fastest lap of the race and is immediately asked by his engineer to be careful, knowing that they have a 20s advantage in hand over Massa.

With Vettel winning, the championship is wide open again. At Ferrari, even despite the second place for Massa, the pitwall is extremely downbeat as they know it is going to be one hard challenge for Alonso, now that nearly all of the Spaniard's advantage is gone.