Sebastian Vettel edged closer to a fourth successive driver’s championship with his fifth straight victory at the Japanese GP over the weekend. It was his 35th career win and the first time he had achieved a sequence of five straight victories. However, due to the final position of his closest rival for the championship Fernando Alonso finishing in fourth, he’ll have to wait another week to secure the title.
This victory in particular was a hard fought and well earned one as Romain Grosjean and team-mate Mark Webber, with whom he has a fiery relationship with, pushed him to the limit. The key to Vettel’s victory was his two stop-strategy over Webber’s three-stop and better tyre management than Grosjean. It was a tough start to the race for Vettel as he and Lewis Hamilton clipped each other and Vettel took damage to his front wing early on whilst Hamilton proceeded to retire from the race.
According to the man himself:
“I had a very,very poor start. I think it was right between Romain and, I think, Lewis and I clipped a little bit the front wing. I think Lewis had a puncture after that. I couldn’t go anywhere”
The troublesome Grosjean managed to capitalise on the Red bulls beating them at the very first corner and would remain ahead for half of the Grand Prix. Mark Webber’s heavier tyres affected his pace and track position but allowed him to finish strongly in the final stint to eventually overcome Grosjean.
Vettel was able to provide a lesson in tyre management as his fresher hard tyres which had eight laps over Grosjean’s allowed him to easily surpass the Frenchman down the pit-straight after initially conceding it after the second stop.
Alonso, whose achievement of all time points record in F1 has been overshadowed, managed to to finish fourth after starting eighth on the grid. But has conceded that the title will inevitably be the German’s once again.
“Even if Vettel doesn’t finish all of the races I need to win nearly all, so its a matter of time (until Vettel is champion)” Alonso admitted.
With victory secured, Sebastian Vettel knows fifth place finish or higher at the Indian GP will be enough to claim a fourth successive title.
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