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Championship
pressures began to show today in Fuji as the Japanese
Grand Prix got off to a chaotic start as Scuderia
Ferrari and its closest rivals ended up being too close
for comfort on more than one occasion. In the end, the
Prancing Horse came off better than the Silver Arrows,
as Kimi finished third and Felipe seventh to bring home
enough points to retake the lead in the Constructors'
championship, while its closest rivals failed to score.
The result was certainly unexpected, with victory for
the second consecutive time this season going to
Fernando Alonso in the Renault, followed home by Robert
Kubica in the BMW-Sauber, who got the better of an
exciting battle with Kimi. Felipe's race was all about
fighting his way back up the order after a drive through
penalty. In the end, he crossed the line in eighth
place, but moved up to seventh after the Stewards
decided that Bourdais, who spun Felipe around as the
Frenchman emerged from pit lane, should be penalised 25
seconds.
After a sunny start to the day, the skies clouded over
at the Fuji Speedway and the temperatures dropped
dramatically as the 1.30 start time approached. As the
lights went out, for the start of the 67 laps, Kimi from
the outside of the front row, got the best start to go
ahead of pole man Hamilton, but the McLaren man retook
the lead at the first corner, pushing Kimi wide and
leaving Felipe stuck behind his team mate. But this
caused a ripple effect through the bunched up pack with
several spins and Coulthard crashing heavily. The order
was instantly changed and not favourably for the
Scuderia drivers, as Kubica, Alonso and Kovalainen now
became the main trio, while Hamilton was now sandwiched
between the two Ferraris. The Englishman and Felipe made
contact with the McLaren spinning and therefore dropping
down the order.
On lap 9 the order was now Kubica, Alonso, Kovalainen,
Kimi, Trulli, Bourdais, Felipe, Piquet, Vettel with
Webber completing the top ten. There were now only 17
runners with Coulthard, Glock and Sutil all out.
On lap 12, Kimi was 4.2 seconds behind the leader in
fourth and Felipe, seventh was 15.8 down. Having pitted
after his spin, championship leader Hamilton was now in
penultimate and 16th place. On lap 16, third placed
Kovalainen parked his McLaren at the side of the track,
moving Kimi and Felipe up to third and sixth
respectively. Kubica and Raikkonen refuelled on lap 17,
but at this time the Stewards indicated Massa had been
given a drive through penalty for the incident with
Hamilton, but the Englishman was also given one. Alonso
who had taken over the lead, was the next to pit
followed in by Felipe, handing the lead to Trulli, who
had Bourdais behind him in second at this point., with
Piquet third and Vettel fourth, while Kimi and Felipe
were now 7th and 10th, but Felipe dropped further back
to 14th, one place ahead of Hamilton as he took his
drive through penalty on lap 19. As Trulli made his stop
on lap 21, Bourdais inherited the lead, ahead of Piquet
and Vettel, as Fisichella retired the Force India in the
garage. Vettel refuelled on lap 23. When Bourdais came
in next time round, it left a Renault one-two in the
lead, with Piquet heading Alonso. Kimi was now fourth
behind Kubica, with Felipe twelfth still one place in
front of Hamilton. At this point, of the top six, only
leader Piquet and fifth placed Webber had not refuelled,
with the Renault man eventually coming in on lap 28.
This meant the order was now Alonso, 7.2 ahead of Kubica
who led Kimi by 4.6. In 13th place, Felipe passed Button
to go eleventh on lap 30.
Ten laps later, Kimi still third was now 5.1 behind
Kubica and 17.8 behind leader Alonso. Felipe was now
tenth over 13 seconds behind Rosberg. Lap 42 saw Felipe
up to ninth. Kubica was the new leader on lap 45 after
Alonso pitted, so Kimi was second, followed by Trulli,
Piquet, Bourdais, Alonso, Vettel, Felipe up to eighth,
putting in a quickest lap, with Webber and Heidfeld
completing the top ten. Kimi then put in a fastest race
lap as he pushed to close on the leader, who pitted on
lap 46, so that Kimi led the race for the first time
since the opening moments of the race. The Finn made his
final pit stop on lap 48 rejoining in seventh place and
but for a backmarker on his in lap, he might have got
ahead of Kubica. Trulli and Bourdais came in from second
and third on lap 50, but as the Toro Rosso man came out
of the pits he tangled with Felipe sending the Ferrari
into a spin. Meanwhile, in fifth place, Kimi was right
up Kubica's gearbox.
Piquet came in from the lead on lap 52, when Kimi nearly
got alongside Kubica at the end of the main straight,
but couldn't quite get past. He tried the same move one
lap later, and out of Turn 1 he got alongside the Polish
driver but was forced wide, dropping back a bit as he
rejoined the track. Felipe now made his final pit stop,
as the Stewards announced that the incident between him
and Bourdais would be investigated after the race.
With ten laps to go, the order was Alonso, Kubica,
Raikkonen, Piquet, Trulli, Bourdais, Vettel, Webber,
these eight all in the points, followed by Heidfeld and
Felipe in tenth. The Brazilian moved up a place when he
dispensed with Heidfeld with seven laps to go, but he
was a considerable 5.4 seconds behind eighth placed
Webber. One lap later and the gap was already down to
3.9. Lap 62 and it was 2.5. Lap 63, 0.9! Then in a
stunning move at the start of lap 65, Felipe bravely
squeezed the Ferrari between the pit wall and the Red
Bull car to get into eighth place and one possibly very
valuable point. At the front the order remained
unchanged and Fernando Alonso took a second consecutive
victory having won in Singapore a fortnight ago. Then
came Kubica, Kimi, Piquet, Trulli, Bourdais, Vettel and
Felipe the last of the points scorers. However, the
Stewards gave Bourdais a 25 second penalty for the
incident with Felipe, thus promoting Vettel, Felipe and
Webber to sixth, seventh and eighth places.
Stefano Domenicali: "A bitter sweet taste after
this race in Fuji. On the one hand is the regret at not
having been able to exploit our great potential: today
we saw that this weekend we had everything in place to
come away with everything. For one reason or another,
from the less than perfect qualifying yesterday, to the
chaos at the start today, we never managed it. On the
other hand there is satisfaction from retaking the lead
in the Constructors' classification and for the slight
gain made by Felipe in the Drivers'. Today, our
Brazilian drove an amazing race, with an incredible
climb up the order, some great passing moves, showing
great maturity. Kimi drove a good race, taking a nice
third place which puts an end to a bad run for him which
had been going on too long, and brings home important
points for the team. His car was not quite right after
the collision with a McLaren at the first corner and
then he was nearly always having to fight in traffic.
Indeed, a backmarker at the crucial moment before his
second stop meant he lost the chance to rejoin the track
in second place. I want to congratulate all the guys in
the pit crew. After what happened in Singapore they were
definitely under pressure but they worked very well. Now
we head immediately for Shanghai for the Chinese Grand
Prix. Our aim remains the same: we will continue to work
hard and with determination to get the best possible
result."
Felipe Massa: "A strange race with everything
that happened on track. In the end, seventh place is
definitely not a disaster given that my closest rival
failed to score points. At the start, I got away well
and had passed Alonso and Kovalainen. Then Hamilton
braked over the limit and I found myself sandwiched
between one car on the inside and one on the outside and
all I could do was brake and stay behind. I think the
duel that followed with Hamilton was hard but fair and
the drive-through really penalized my race. In the
second part, on the hard tyres, the car was flying,
which is very encouraging for the next races. As for the
incident with Bourdais, I think there's little to say: I
had already entered the turn and he hit me from behind,
spinning me round. In the duel with Webber I saw a space
down the inside and went for it. He moved over on me a
little bit towards the wall which might have looked a
bit scary but it was not like that from the cockpit.
Anyway, it was a very important moment in the race and I
had to try. Now we will give it our all in the next two
races. We have great potential available to us and we
must do all we can to exploit it."
Kimi Raikkonen: "Even if third place has put an
end to a run of poor results, I am a bit disappointed
because today we had the means to win. At the start, I
got away well but then, at the first corner, the two
McLarens arrived too fast at the braking point and
prevented me from turning in, taking me off the track.
That lost me a lot of ground and I found myself in the
middle of the pack. On top of that, the car was not
quite right as I was hit by one of the McLarens: the
steering was a bit light and there was other damage as
well. I tried to do the best I could but I was not as
quick as I'd hoped, especially in the second stint.
Before the second stop, I closed on Kubica but I
couldn't pass him in the pit stop because on my in lap I
found myself behind Rosberg a lap down. Then I tried
several times to attack Robert but he defended his
position well. At one point, I did find myself slightly
ahead of him going into turn 3, but I was on the outside
and he did not give up the line so I had to go off the
track. After that, I had a bit of graining and so I was
not able to catch up again. In any case, I am happy to
have brought home important points for the team."
Luca Baldisserri: "Definitely a difficult race,
affected by what went wrong at the start. A shame as we
had a great potential, as we went on to demonstrate
during the race. In particular, Felipe put on a great
performance, with incredible lap times. Kimi did his own
race but was struggling a bit in the second stint,
unable to stick with Kubica. He would however, possibly
have managed to pass him at the pit stop, if he had not
got stuck in traffic on his in lap. His six points are
still very important for the Constructors'
classification. The F2008 proved to be very competitive
at this track and I think that will also be the case in
China. We will give it our all for the final two races."
Race Details:
K. Raikkonen: 3rd 1:30.28.292 + 6.400 67 laps chassis
270
F. Massa : 7th 1:31.08.050 + 46.158 67 laps chassis 269
Weather: air temperature 15 °C, track temperature 17 °C,
overcast.
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