Hamilton wins red-flagged Japanese F1 Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton overtook Nico Rosberg in lap 29 in spectacular fashion to lead the race till it was red-flagged in lap 47 when Jules Bianchi crashed.

Jules Bianchi of Marussia crashed into a recovery vehicle which had been deployed after Adrian Sutil's crash. Bianchi suffered severe head injuries and has undergone head surgery. The result was backdated to lap 44. Aware about the extent of injuries to Jules Bianchi there was no celebration on the podium by winner Lewis Hamilton, second placed Nico Rosberg and third placed Sebastian Vettel. There were no champagnes opened and the stony face of the drivers reflected the severity of the incident.

The weather reports indicated that the Japanese F1 Grand Prix will have massive rains. Accordingly FIA had given the option to hold the race earlier in the day. However fearing cancellation by spectators, the race organisers decided to hold it on the scheduled time. So the race was started under safety car and the visibility was extremely poor. The safety car period ended in lap 9 and normal racing began. However, the spray from the cars ahead made it difficult for the drivers.

Daniel Ricciardo of RedBull finished 4th behind his teammate Vettel. He was followed by Jenson Button of McLaren in 5th. It was a good performance from Jenson Button whose seat for next year is in doubt.

Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa of Williams came in 6th and 7th. Nico Hulkenberg of Force India finished on 8th.

Jean-Eric Vergne of Toro Rosso who doesn't have a race seat next year finished on 9th. He was followed by Sergio Perez of Force India on 10th.

Kvyat of Toro Rosso finished without points on 11th. He was followed by Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari on 12th. Infact both the two Ferrari's finished without points as earlier Fernando Alonso's engine failed and he had to retire in the 2nd lap during the safety car period itself.

Esteban Gutierrez of Sauber and Kevin Magnussen of McLaren finished on 13th and 14th. The Lotus duo of Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado finished on 15th and 16th.

Marcus Ericsson of Caterham finished 17th ahead of Max Chilton of Marussia in 18th. Kamui Kobayashi of Caterham finished 19th and last in his home race. This may be his last race considering his performance as well as the difficult financial position of the Caterham team.

Retirements in Japanese F1 Grand Prix 2014

Jules Bianchi             Marussia
Adrian Sutil               Sauber
Fernando Alonso       Ferrari

Hamilton loses pole to Rosberg at Suzuka

Lewis Hamilton who is now leading the F1 World Championship by 3 points, lost the pole to his teammate Nico Rosberg in the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka.

Though it was a keenly contested qualifying, Hamilton had crashed in the final practice. In the Final top ten shootout, he locked up and Rosberg beat him to the pole by 0.2 seconds. Nico Rosberg set a time of 1m 32.506 seconds to Hamilton's 1m 32.703 seconds.

The Mercedes duo were followed by the Williams pair of Valtteri Bottas in 3rd and Felipe Massa in 4th. Bottas had a time of 1m 33.128 seconds vis-a-vis his teammate Massa's time of 1m 33.527 seconds.

Fernando Alonso who is rumoured to be departing Ferrari at the end of the season for McLaren will start tomorrows race in 5th position with a time of 1m 33.740 seconds. Daniel Ricciardo of RedBull came 6th with a time of 1m 34.075 seconds.

Next came the McLaren duo of Kevin Magnussen at 7th with time of 1m34.242 followed by his teammate and former world champion Jenson Button at 1m 34.317seconds.

Sebastian Vettel of RedBull who has announced that this season will be his last with Red Bull and supposed to be heading towards Ferrari came in 9th by timing 1m 34.432 seconds. He was followed by his next years likely teammate Kimi Raikkonen in 10th. Kimi was timed at 1m 34.548seconds.

Jean-Eric Vergne of Toro Rosso who is looking for a drive next year, will start 11th. He is followed by Sergio Perez of Force India in 12th.

Daniel Kvyat of Toro Rosso will start at 13th. RedBull has just announced that Kvyat will take Vettel's place in Red Bull next year. Nico Hulkenberg of Force India came in 14th. He was followed by the Sauber duo of Adrian Sutil and Esteban Gutierrez in 15th and 16th positions.

Lotus drivers Pastor Maldonado and Romain Grosjean occupy the by now familiar 17th and 18th positions.

Marcus Ericsson of Caterham came in 19th ahead of Jules Bianchi of Marussia on 20th, Kamui Kobayashi of Caterham in 21st and Max Chilton of Marussia in 22nd.

There is likely to be rain and safety car periods in tomorrow race. Hamilton does well in wet races. So it would be interesting to see if Lewis Hamilton can overtake Nico Rosberg during the start and win the race.

Formula One drivers championship standings after Japan

Formula One Drivers Championship standings

The Formula One Championship is now in an interesting stage. The lead of Fernando Alonso in the drivers championship has come down drastically due to his retirements and Sebastian Vettel's back to back wins.

Lewis Hamilton had a bad outing in Japan and his championship hopes appear to be virtually over. Especially since his equations with his team has evaporated culminating in his announcement of his Mercedes deal.

Kimi Raikkonen hasn't won a race in this season and unless he wins the next few races his championship hopes are also over. With the superior pace of Red Bull, Sebastian Vettel would have dreaming of a third consecutive drivers championship title.

Ranking	Driver	Team	Points
1	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	194
2	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull	190
3	Kimi Raikkonen	Lotus	157
4	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren	152
5	Mark Webber	Red Bull	134
6	Jenson Button	McLaren	131
7	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	93
8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus	82
9	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	69
10	Sergio Perez	Sauber	66
11	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber	50
12	Paul de Resta	Force India	44
13	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	43
14	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	37
15	Pastor Maldonado	Williams	33
16	Bruno Senna	Williams	25
17	Jean-Eric Vergne	Toro Rosso	8
18	Daniel Ricciardo	Toro Rosso	7
19	Timo Glock	Marussia	0
20	Heikki Kovalainen	Caterham	0
21	Vitaly Petrov	Caterham	0
22	Jerome D'Ambrosio	Lotus	0
23	Charles Pic	Marussia	0
24	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT	0
25	Pedro de La Rosa	HRT	0

Vettel scores Pole and Redbull 1-2 in Suzuka

Sebastian Vettel Scores Pole in Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix 

Red Bull scores 1-2 in qualifying with Sebastian Vettel scoring the Pole in 2012 Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix qualifying.

Schumacher who has announced his retirement, made everybody gasp for breath when he was on the verge of being the only driver who couldn’t qualify under the 107% rule. He was in hard tires and had perhaps planned two back to back laps. His first lap was compromised as he ran wide and despite slow cars ahead of him, he could squeeze through and score P16 and qualify to Q2.

The following drivers failed to qualify for Q2

Bruno Senna of Williams at 1:33.405,

Heikki Kovalainen of Caterham at 1:34.657

Timo Glock of Marussia at 1:35.213

Pedro de la Rosa of HRT 1:35.385

Charles Pic of Marussia 1:35.429

Vitaly Petrov of Caterham 1:35.432

Narain Karthikeyan of HRT 1:36.734

It was a great result for Pedro de la Rosa of HRT who outqualified Charles Pic of Marussia and Vitaly Petrov of Caterham.

Mercedes was not fast enough. Michael Schumacher waited till the last moment to hit the track. However, at 1:32.469 he could score the 13^th position, faster than his much younger team mate Nico Rosberg who scored P15 with a time of 1:32.625. Michael Schumacher however has a penalty of 10 grid slots for the accident in Singapore.

Felipe Massa who was threatening to out pace his much fancied rival Fernando Alonso, could only score the P11 position at 1:32.293. Paul di Resta at 1:32.327 is at P12. Pastor Maldonado of Williams again outscored his team mate Bruno Senna. Maldonado set a time of 1:32.512. Daniel Ricciardo scored 1:32.954 for a P16 position ahead of his team mate Jean-Eric Vergne who set a time of 1:33.368

At the top of the table, it was an intensely fought session, with the RedBulls locking up the front row. Sebastian Vettel at 1:30.839 scored the Pole while his team mate Mark Webber at 1:31.090 came in second. Jenson Button of McLaren scored 1:31.290 outscored his team mate Lewis Hamilton who is going to Mercedes at the end of the season. However, Jenson Button will drop down 5 positions due to a gearbox change. The local hero Kamui Kobayashi at 1:31.700 scored the P4 position for Sauber and will be elevated to P3 due to Jenson Button’s penalty.

Romain Grosjean at 1:31.898 scored P5, Sergio Perez at 1:32.022 scored P6. Fernando Alonso at 1:32.114 was P7, Kimi Raikkonen at 1:32.208 was P8, Hamilton at 1:32.327 was P9. Nico Hulkenberg didn’t choose to set a time and was P10.

Many questions to answer. Will Michael Schumacher overcome his 10 place grid penalty and score good points as Suzuka is a drivers circuit?