Categories
Formula 1 Lotus Red Bull Racing

Sebastian Vettel wins 2013 Japanese GP

Sebastian Vettel wins 2013 Japanese GP

Oh how all of Australia wished Mark Webber could convert his pole position into a race win at the Japanese Grand Prix today. Yet, just as Stuart MacGill’s cricketing talent was never fulfilled thanks to the presence of Shane Warne, Webber had to once again watch, seemingly powerless, as his teammate went on to craft another grand prix victory. Mark left to content himself with second place.

Both Red Bull drivers made clumsy starts from the front row and the Lotus lead-driver-in-waiting Romain Grosjean took the opportunity to take the lead into the first corner from P4. In the melee of the start Vettel clipped Lewis Hamilton’s left rear. Hamilton had made a good start too, but his race was ruined after the subsequent puncture and damage to his floor of his Mercedes AMG eventually sent him into retirement.

The rest of the field was left to fight over the scraps as the leading trio got down to the business of winning the race. A mix of strategies—Webber, three stops; Vettel and Grosjean, two stops—meant we spent the bulk of the race waiting for Mark’s final pit stop so we could finally see what would happen next.

Grosjean left himself the longest final stint on his tyres and after Vettel emerged from his final stop behind the Lotus driver his task was to overtake as soon as possible in order to build a lead in anticipation of Webber’s closing pace in the last few laps. True to form Vettel got the job done, forcing his way past Grosjean without losing too much time.

Webber entered the pits in the lead, with the gap back to Vettel closing by the lap. But with a brand new set of prime tyres, and close behind Grosjean, he had 10 laps to overtake the Frenchman and set about chasing down Vettel. What Vettel made look easy, Webber made look hard. He eventually did get past Grosjean, but with just two laps left in the race, the damage was done and Vettel cruised to a seven second victory.

Daniel Ricciardo had an anonymous race and finished in P13, one place behind Jean-Eric Vergne. Daniel’s race was affected after he ran wide on the exit of 130R overtaking Adrian Sutil. The race stewards said he gained an unfair advantage by running off the circuit and issued him with a drive-through penalty. Elsewhere not much else happened.

Today’s win is Vettel’s fifth in a row since the mid-season break and his ninth race win of the year. Fernando Alonso’s fourth place was enough to delay Vettel’s championship party for a couple of weeks until the teams reassemble for the Indian Grand Prix.

2013 Japanese Grand Prix final placings

  1. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing – 53 Laps (25 pts)
  2. Mark Webber Red Bull Racing – +7.1 secs (18 pts)
  3. Romain Grosjean Lotus – +9.9 secs (15 pts)
  4. Fernando Alonso Ferrari – +45.6 secs (12 pts)
  5. Kimi Räikkönen Lotus – +47.3 secs (10 pts)
  6. Nico Hulkenberg Sauber – +51.6 secs (8 pts)
  7. Esteban Gutierrez Sauber – +71.6 secs (6 pts)
  8. Nico Rosberg Mercedes AMG – +72.0 secs (4 pts)
  9. Jenson Button McLaren – +80.8 secs (2 pts)
  10. Felipe Massa Ferrari – +89.2 secs (1 pt)
  11. Paul di Resta Force India – +98.5 secs
  12. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso – +1 Lap
  13. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso – +1 Lap
  14. Adrian Sutil Force India – +1 Lap
  15. Sergio Perez McLaren – +1 Lap
  16. Pastor Maldonado Williams – +1 Lap
  17. Valtteri Bottas Williams – +1 Lap
  18. Charles Pic Caterham – +1 Lap
  19. Max Chilton Marussia – +1 Lap

Retired/not classified
Lewis Hamilton Mercedes AMG – +46 Laps
Giedo van der Garde Caterham – 0 Laps (Accident)
Jules Bianchi Marussia – 0 Laps (Accident)

Fastest lap
Mark Webber Red Bull Racing – 1:34.587 (Lap 44)

2013 F1 world championship – Drivers (top 10)

  1. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing – 297
  2. Fernando Alonso Ferrari – 207
  3. Kimi Räikkönen Lotus – 177
  4. Lewis Hamilton Mercedes AMG – 161
  5. Mark Webber Red Bull Racing – 148
  6. Nico Rosberg Mercedes AMG – 126
  7. Felipe Massa Ferrari – 90
  8. Romain Grosjean Lotus – 87
  9. Jenson Button McLaren – 60
  10. Nico Hulkenberg Sauber – 39

2013 F1 world championship – Constructors

  1. Red Bull Racing-Renault – 445
  2. Ferrari – 297
  3. Mercedes – 287
  4. Lotus-Renault – 264
  5. McLaren-Mercedes – 83
  6. Force India-Mercedes – 62
  7. Sauber-Ferrari – 45
  8. STR-Ferrari – 31
  9. Williams-Renault – 1

12 replies on “Sebastian Vettel wins 2013 Japanese GP”

I don’t know that I’d call Daniel’s race “anonymous”. His tyre strategy had him up to fourth at one stage and even after he stopped for fresh rubber he was carving his way back up the field with a series of very good passes. Unfortunately, that amazing pass around the outside of Sutil through 130R earned him a drive-through. Without out that penalty he’d have finished well ahead of his team-mate and probably in the points as well.

Fair call, although his 4th place was always going to be undone after his pit stop. And yep, he was definitely dudded of points IMO after his penalty.

Redback summed up RIC’s afternoon beautifully. I’d just add though, according to the rules RIC was always going to have to hand back that position, and the FIA have been consistent on that rule all year. As much as I don’t like the rule, its not like its one of those situations where he was unfairly picked on.

The rule exists to prevent drivers from cheating effectively, and given that RIC did only manage to complete the overtake by going outside the track, if he had to scrub off speed to stay on the track, then one could argue that he might not have been able to make the pass in the first place.

What gets me is that there was no need for Mark to be called in when he his laptop time one lap 11 was the same as lap 8. This was an another strategy for RB to bring him in early and set him up to be overtaken by Seb.

Mark had the advantage, but when he was called in GRO had the the leap frog…

What gets me is that there was no need for Mark to be called in when he his lap time one lap 11 was the same as lap 8. This was an another strategy for RB to bring him in early and set him up to be overtaken by Seb.

Mark had the advantage, but when he was called in GRO had the the leap frog…

Why oh why does Ausmotive feel the need to keep perpetuating the “Stuart MacGill had greatness” myth?

There was a reason he only ever got selected alongside Warne for the rank turners, because he was shithouse on any pitch not perfectly crafted for a spinner. We used to love it when NSW were in town playing at Adelaide Oval with MacGill in the side because our guys could run up a big score and and give the crowd chances for catches!

That being said, I think the comparison is quite fair really. Mark Webber has had a rather average F1 career which was artificially boosted by holding down a seat in some of the most dominant cars in the history of the world championship, but he was just a run of the mill journeyman whenever the stars were not perfectly aligned for him – compared to guys like Alonso and Hamilton who have had to make their own luck.

Without straying too far off topic, Warne averaged 4.88 wickets per Test, MacGill close behind on 4.7 wickets per test.

MacGill wasn’t as good as Warne, but with more opportunity he could have taken 4-500 Test wickets, quite easily.

Until Warne gave it away MacGill only ever played on the best spin-friendly wickets so of course he was going to get a good wickets/match stat. Outside of the nicest venues he would struggle to even justify his place for NSW, let alone Australia.

Likewise, if you take away Webber’s performances on a couple of his favourite tracks his F1 career suddenly looks a lot more like a very average driver in a brilliant car.

That’s the point, the presence of Warne deprived MacGill of opportunities. He would have walked into any other Test side in the world. We’ll never really know how good he could have been.

Similarly, on his day Mark has shown he is more than good enough to mix it with the best in F1, and with a good car/team he’s just unlucky that someone of Vettel’s talent happened to arrive at the same time.

The point being, it’s easy to shitcan Mark (and I’m guilty of it at times), but in doing so we sometimes forget how good the other guy is.

Comments are closed.