Once again: what a race! Unexpected things happened already at the start. Both Red Bulls got a lousy start and Grosjean from P4 was able to storm to the lead! Hamilton jumped second but in the first corner Vettel´s front wing touched Hamilton´s rear tyre causing a puncture for the Briton. Hamilton had to come to the pits for a tyre change. Only a few laps later he had to retire due to high brake temperatures. Kimi had a poor start as well and the Iceman lost two positions and dropped to P11.
During the first pit stops Rosberg was released unsafely from the pits and the German nearly crashed to Perez, who was coming in for his pit stop. Rosberg was handed a drive-through penalty due to this incident, which didn´t make Mercedes´s day any brighter. After the first pit stops Grosjean was still leading the race, Webber was second and Vettel third. Kimi had made his way through to P7.
Webber came for his second pit stop already on lap 26. Meanwhile his team-mate Sebastian was furiously catching Grosjean in the lead. When Grosjean pitted a few laps later, Sebastian at the wheel of his RB9 took the lead. More drive-through penalties were handed. Ricciardo in his Toro Rosso was handed one due to leaving track when overtaking Di Resta. Massa also got one for speeding in the pit lane. Massa´s penalty benefitted Kimi, who gained one position this way.
After the second pit stop Sebastian rejoined the track in P3 behind Webber and Grosjean. On lap 41 Sebastian made a dashing overtaking move on Grosjean and got past the French Lotus driver! Only a couple of laps later Webber had to pit for the third time so Sebastian took the lead again. So the Red Bull drivers had a different strategy: two stops for Sebastian while Webber had a three-stop strategy.
At the end of the race Perez and Rosberg got involved with another incident. Perez blocked Rosberg´s line in the braking, which caused Rosberg hitting Perez´s rear tyre. Perez got a puncture and had to pit for a tyre change. On the second last lap Webber finally managed to overtake Grosjean and made his way up to P2. Kimi also made a spectacular move on Hulkenberg on the same lap and got past the German! That was definitely the most awesome pass of the whole Japanese GP! So 1-2 for Red Bull, Grosjean 3rd, Alonso 4th, Kimi 5th, Hulkenberg 6th, Gutierrez 7th (a great race from the Mexican!), Rosberg 8th (after all the incidents...), Button 9th and Massa 10th. On the final lap Maldonado made a questionable pass on his Finnish team-mate at the last chicane and claimed P16.
However, in spite of the 5th win in-a-row Sebastian didn´t clinch his 4th WDC at Suzuka. There´re now 90 points separating Sebastian and Alonso in the championship standings so 5th place in India is enough for Sebastian to clinch the title in a fortnight. This season really seems to be going from win to win for Sebastian! Still this young man keeps amazing me every time he does that! It´s so difficult to describe what kind of a feeling I´m having after this kind of a race. But it´s definitely one of the very best feelings in life: pure happiness. After the race I headed for a zumba marathon arranged by my twin sister and I utterly loved to dance. This is one of those days that I feel so so extremely happy! My birthday is tomorrow and Sebastian couldn´t possibly have given me any more perfect birthday present ;D
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