Vettel wins from pole in Suzuka, opens title race

SUZUKA - Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel Sunday managed to secure a start-to-finish victory at the Japanese Grand Prix in Suzuka.

The German won his third race of the season and fourth overall ahead of Toyota’s Jarno Trulli and McLaren-Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton.

The 22-year-old German finished the 53 laps of 5.807 km for a total of 307.573 km in a time of 1 hour 28 minutes and 20.443 seconds.

Championship-leader Jenson Button in a Brawn GP finished in eighth place and secured a further point towards the title, while his team-mate Rubens Barrichello, who is also his main rival for the world title, got just one point more after finishing seventh.

Vettel’s victory throws the championship open again though as he now is within 16 points of Button with two races to go.

In 2007 Kimi Raikkonen managed to close a 17-point gap on Hamilton in the two final races to take the championship from the Briton.

“It can still be done. It would be nice to have a few more races to go. But we have a great car and we will simply try to win. Whatever they (Button and Barrichello) do is in their hands. We can only try to win,” Vettel said.

Only 19 cars started the race as German Toyota driver Timo Glock, who was taken to hospital with a leg wound on Saturday after crashing during qualifying, failed to respond sufficiently to treatment to race.

Race stewards then turned down a Toyota request to allow substitute driver Kamui Kobayashi into the race as the Japanese had not participated in the final practise session - as is required by the regulations.

Hamilton, who started third on the grid, had no problems overtaking Trulli once the green light had come on with the help of his KERS system and came close to taking Vettel in the first corner.

The Red Bull driver managed to just hold off Hamilton and then immediately started putting a gap between the two.

“I knew that the start would be tough and it was closer than I thought it would be. Suddenly I saw a Silver Arrow to the left of me. But I stayed in the middle and then had the advantage as we went around the corner,” Vettel said.

Button, meanwhile, who was hoping to secure five points more than his team-mate Rubens Barrichello to be crowned world champion with two races to go, was stuck in 10th place behind McLaren’s Heikki Kovalainen and Force India’s Adrian Sutil.

The Briton, however, benefited from a scrap between the two on the 14th lap as Sutil and Kovalainen made contact as the German tried to pass the Finn.

Button then went to eighth, but lost that position soon afterwards as he pitted for fuel. He later regained the place after the final fuel stops.

Upfront, Vettel, who went into the race 25 points behind Button in the championship standings, continued to lead after the first set of fuel stops as surprisingly none of the frontrunners opted for a one-stop strategy.

Hamilton and Trulli did not have enough speed to challenge Vettel for the lead, and were behind by 11 seconds at one stage.

Trulli then made the most of being able to stay out on the course for a couple of laps longer than Hamilton as he came out marginally ahead of the McLaren to regain second place that he had held at the start.

The safety car had to come out with just nine laps to go as Spanish Toro Rosso driver Jaime Alguersuari lost control on the 15th turn and crashed into a tyre wall.

Williams’ Nico Rosberg, who was the only driver of the leading pack not to have pitted for the final time when the safety car came out, managed to come out in fifth place after going into the pits during the safety car phase. He lost just one place to Raikkonen in a Ferrari.

BMW-Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld finished sixth, behind Raikkonen and Rosberg, while the final points went to the Brawn GP duo of Button and Barrichello, who went into the race needing just 3.5 points to secure the constructors’ championship.

Brawn GP now needs just half a point to win the constructors’ championship in their inaugural season.

Ahead of the penultimate race in Sao Paulo in Brazil October 18, Button has 85 points, while Barrichello is on 71. Vettel is on 69 points.