Race Report
Japanese GP
Sebastian Vettel drove the perfect race from pole position to win the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka. Despite a safety car period late in the race caused by a heavy crash suffered by Jaime Alguersuari, Vettel was never troubled and was in total command of the race throughout. Jarno Trulli secured second place, an important result for the Toyota team at their home Grand Prix. Trulli was strong throughout the race and despite losing the advantage to Lewis Hamilton off the grid was always in contention and never far from Hamilton's exhaust. He claimed second after leapfrogging the McLaren driver at the second round of pit stops. Kimi Raikkonen drove a solid race for Ferrari but was never in a position to challenge the leaders but nonetheless recorded a valuable fourth place finish. Fifth place went to Nico Rosberg who drove well for Williams but some questions were raised post race regarding excessive speed under the safety car and whether he could be awarded a penalty by the stewards. Nick Heidfeld rounded out the top six for BMW. Battling team mates and title rivals Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button mopped up the last remaining points for seventh and eighth places. Button made a relatively poor start but managed to claw his way back to Barrichello after taking advantage of a clash between Adrian Sutil and Heikki Kovalainen. which allowed the championship leader to gain two valuable places in one fell swoop. Button came under considerable pressure during the final laps after the safety car period from a hard charging Robert Kubica but held on for what could be a decisive single point in the end analysis. Fernando Alonso closed out the top ten for Renault. Jaime Alguersuari fortunately emerged unscathed from his wrecked car after his high speed impact at the daunting 130R corner. The result leaves the drivers world championship open with Button still enjoying a fourteen point gap to Barrichello and sixteen points to Vettel.
