Sebastian Vettel wins Japanese Grand Prix, cuts down the gap to Fernando Alonso

Red Bull Racing's Sebastian Vettel won the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka from pole position and managed to slash the gap to points leader Fernando Alonso to four points after the Ferrari driver retired on the first lap of the race, said a report in The Hindustan Times.

In a surprise second place was Alonso's teammate Felipe Massa who was followed home to third by home hero Kamui Kobayashi of Sauber. Kobayashi was just about able to hold off McLaren's Jenson Button who finished fourth, 0.5 seconds behind.

Lewis Hamilton, Kimi Raikkonen, Nico Hulkenberg, Pastor Maldonado and Daniel Ricciardo finished fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth and tenth respectively.

Michael Schumacher recovered from a ten-place grid penalty that saw him start 23rd and finish 11th, just 0.8 seconds behind Ricciardo.

Narain Karthikeyan retired from 20th place following lingering problems with his HRT F1 F112 that started with a damaged floor in Friday practice.

Meanhwile a report in The Times of India says that Vettel on Sunday warned there was a long way to go in the Formula One championship despite his "dream" victory in the Japanese Grand Prix.

His win in Japan has now sees him trail the leader Alonso by four points, but he said: "I am very careful. I think we had a long journey so far. It has been a tough year and there are still many races to go. Today I don't want to talk about the championship."

Vettel romped to his second straight title last year but he has suffered reliability problems this season before hitting form with his back-to-back wins in Singapore and Japan.


And his position in the title race owes much to Alonso's first-lap retirement after a nudge from Kimi Raikkonen. McLaren's Lewis Hamilton was also right in the championship until retiring from the lead two weeks ago in Singapore.

"Obviously it was an important step today but there's still a long way to go," Vettel said. "If you look at the last couple of races, after Spa ( Belgium) it was very much up and down," Vettel said.

"I don't know what happened today, but at Spa, Fernando was unlucky. You don't hope those things will happen to yourself, but you know over the next few races it could happen. It is long season and crazy racing so far."