Suzuka, Japan: Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel worked a brave two-stop strategy to claim his ninth win of the season at Suzuka. Team-mate Mark Webber finished second, ahead of Lotus’ Romain Grosjean, to hand the team its second 1-2 finish of the year at Japanese Grand Prix here on Sunday.
However, Vettel will have to wait to seal a fourth-straight Formula One title as nearest rival Fernando Alonso finished fourth.
Vettel surged into the lead on the 41st lap and led a Red Bull one-two ahead of teammate Mark Webber by 7.1 seconds.
“A very rewarding win today; it’s a great feeling,” said Vettel of his fifth win on the trot and his fourth career victory at Suzuka. “I love this track and it’s just fantastic to win here.
“It was a horrible start to be honest; we found ourselves sitting in third place and then tried to go longer in the first stint,” he added. “I had great traction after I got past Romain and after that the only threat was Mark, who got stuck behind Romain. We could then manage the gap until the end of the race.”
Mark admitted that it had been a close call between the two- and three-stop strategies. “We were on the back foot a bit after Romain’s great start,” he said. “I wanted to put pressure on him for the win. Sebastian was on a different strategy to me and in the end it worked out pretty similar. It’s hard to know which was right (a two- or three-stop strategy), as we were trying to cover off Romain. I did my best and in the end it was a good result.”
Team Principal Christian Horner later labelled the drivers’ achievement a “massive result”.
“It was an exciting race that was dictated by the tyre strategy,” he said. “We split the strategies between a three-stop for Mark and a two-stop for Seb, based on the expected tyre lives on the two cars. Both drivers managed to make it work to navigate their way past Romain Grosjean, in particularly brave moves down into turn one. A great result for the Team and both Championships and congratulations to Renault for another one, two three finish on the podium. A massive result for the team to achieve a one two in Japan.”
