Japanese GP – How to lose a race, by R. Grosjean

A line of cars are starting to form behind long-stinting Ricciardo. Hulkenberg, Massa, Alonso and eventually Kimi and Gutierriez. The Toro Rosso is defending well but the cars make their way past and we get the treat of seeing Kimi pass Gutierrez on the outside in 130R. Ricciardo pits and The Hulk is again in front of Alonso just like in Korea. The Hulk proving his worth.

Mark Webber has closed right up to Grosjean and pulls into the pits on lap 25 as the 3 stop strategy is coming into play. Grosjean, being on a 2-stopper has to keep it going 4 more laps. By that time, Webber is ahead of him and has a golden opportunity to win this race. Which he naturally fails to capitalize on. He could have gunned it like Vettel did in Singapore to make up enough time to negate an extra stop. But he didn’t. And you know why? Because he is unable to. That speed is long gone if it ever really was there.

Grosjean pits on lap 29 and loses the lead of the race. Vettel keeps going until lap 37, making good use of the tires for a final quick stint on fresh hards. Kimi makes his final stop on lap 31 and comes out in 7th place marginally ahead of Ricciardo and Rosberg. Massa ahead gets a drive-thru penalty for pitlane speeding so that’s one less competitor to worry about. It did cause some confusion on the radio for Kimi:

Slade: “Massa has a drive through penalty.”Kimi: “Why we have drive through penalty?”Slade: “Massa, has penalty, Massa, Massa.”

Angered by this exchange, he immediately sets a fastest lap to cool off. Or something like that.. 1.35.5 was very quick for that stage of the race though.

Vettel comes out 3,5 seconds behind Grosjean after his stop. He wastes no time in closing the gap which was done in about 2 laps. The very next lap he gets past the Lotus down the straight. In spite of Grosjean making another idiot chopping move in trying to “defend” himself. It was so bad in fact, that Sebastians DRS closed, as he had to take evasive action to avoid contact and only opened it again for the final part of the straight. Job done in a swift manner though.

Meanwhile, the Sauber, Ferrari and Lotus fight is going on. Alonso got past the Sauber but Kimi has no chance in doing the same down the straight. Even with the DRS wing open their top speed is almost the same. So Kimi has to get smart once again. And he does. He passes Hulkenberg for 5th place at the chicane, thus having DRS down the straight to keep his position.

A brilliant move, reminiscent of his calculated move on Schumacher in Spa last year. Webber pits and gets the softer tire for his final 10 lap stint. He is 5 seconds behind Grosjean when he should have been well ahead of him. But he now has the absolute fastest package on the track.

A Red Bull with fresh soft tires and only a few laps to go so no real tire preservation needed. In effect there should have been fire trails after his car as he was chasing down the Lotus. It takes him 4 laps to catch Grosjean on worn tires. On top of that he is unable to get past Grosjean. Lap after lap he fails doing what Vettel did in one try. Such a waste of a car.

It actually takes him 6 tries and some help from traffic to get past the Frenchman. But he finally takes 2nd place as Vettel is almost 10 seconds up the road.

So Vettel crosses the line to win the Japanese GP for the 5th time in a row. I can only tip my hat to such an achievement. The championship is not secured but will be in the next race unless he has a DNF. Kimi turned a bad start to the weekend into a good one. His qualifying and start was poor but his race pace and race craft was flawless.

He fought his way up from 11th to 5th. Helped a little by a retirement and a penalty of course. Remember that he started 7th last year and finished 6th. You will probably call me biased and I know I am at times. But Kimis race really was an impressive display of how to cope and make the best out of a very tricky situation. Which brings me to my next point. How to make a mess of a very favorable situation.