Sebastian Vettel wins the Japanese Grand Prix

2013 Japanese Grand Prix summary

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Sebastian Vettel is poised to clinch the world championship after scoring his ninth victory of the season in Japan.

Vettel’s fourth win at Suzuka came despite both Red Bulls dropping behind the fast-starting Romain Grosjean at the start.

Red Bull used different strategies to attack Lotus, bringing Mark Webber in early for his second stop and leaving Vettel out longer for his. Vettel passed Grosjean shortly after his final stop but Webber took longer to clear the Lotus after to his and had to settle for second behind his team mate.

Fernando Alonso took fourth place from Nico Hulkenberg, who was also passed by Kimi Raikkonen on the penultimate lap.

For the first time this year both Saubers finished in the points as Esteban Gutierrez scored for the first time in his career.

Nico Rosberg was eighth after a drive-through penalty for being released from the pits too soon, while Felipe Massa was also penalised for pit lane speeding. He finished tenth behind Jenson Button.

2013 Japanese Grand Prix

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Image © Red Bull/Getty

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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32 comments on “Sebastian Vettel wins the Japanese Grand Prix”

  1. Pretty good Race… Pretty Happy Face of Mark webber…

    Lot of Smiling faces on the Podium…..

  2. Sebastian Vettel wins the Japanese Grand Prix

    Now there’s a surprise.

    Feel gutted for Grosjean though, I felt that he drove better than anyone this race, but the Red Bull was simply too overpowered at the end.

    1. Yeah at one point I was almost sure that Grosjean would win, so I was really depressed when Vettel overtook him :-(

    2. It also seemed like Lotus weren’t sure whether to go for two stops or three, and ended up making Romain’s second stop too early for two stops to work properly, but too late to have good track position for three stops.

      If Grosjean had stayed out and made Vettel pit (when he was told to do the opposite of whatever Romain did), he might have been able to run longer and the result could have been different.

      Ultimately, though, Red Bull were able to take advantage of the fact that both their drivers were in the hunt, and split their strategies.

      1. Michael Brown (@)
        13th October 2013, 13:16

        Typical Lotus strategy

      2. @red-andy RedBull used Webber to force Lotus to cover and then it was over because they didn’t have the pace to make a 3 stopper works … Would have been interesting a bit more confidence in a 2 stopper from Lotus, but they haven’t shown very confident strategic choices along the year.

        1. If Webber would have immediately overtaken Grosjean instead of taking 6 or so laps, he would have been very close to Vettel at the end of the race. So the three stop was not totally outrageous as they surely could have expected Webber to pass Grosjean easily on much newer medium tyres compared to Grosjean’s older hards.

  3. when is 2014 coming?

    1. I assume in 2014. I could be wrong, though.

      1. LOL, but F1wise and AFAIAC, 2014 begins the 24th of November in the evening, after the Interlagos race. Tht’s 41 days and a few hours from now.

    2. Approximately 79 days 16 hours in Britain.

    3. Looking forward to Vettel 5th title?

      1. @ialtair

        a little too early to say that huh?

    4. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
      13th October 2013, 18:16

      let’s fast forward…

  4. Impressive from Gutierrez, he’s doing very well since August, hasn’t he?. It’s impressive from Sauber overall. They weren’t that far away from repeating the 4th place from Korea, and they’ve jumped from being veeery far from Toro Rosso, to challenging Force India for 6th in the constructors champ. And McLaren? well, at the rate they are going, and the way the car is handling, they got the grips to try and overtake both of them !

    1. I reckon with the way Guttierez was racing, had he qualified further up he would have beaten Hulkenburg. Very on it today.

      1. You see I just don’t get a comment like this. Last week Hulkenberg keeps two world champs behind. Today he almost keeps two behind (Rai and Alo made excellent overtakes). And Yes it’s your opinion, but I just don’t get the “if” stuff. And I know Guttierez is a rookie and I know Hulk was beat by Barichello in his rookie year. I just think OK good solid driving from the Sauber drivers and well done to the team for getting the car goign so well.

      2. Well deserved points finish for Gutierrez – great racing off camera and some impressive passes and defense – good going indeed since August

  5. Great job by Vettel… A shame Webber couldn’t pass the Lotus quickly enough to have a real go at Vettel… Though my driver of the day is Romain Grosjean he’s come a long way from his crash prone days has’nt he? Keep that up Romain… It’s nice to see someone doing so well after all the flak he ‘s had in the past..
    There was an interesting Radio message from Vettel something like “keep him away from me ,we don’t have the tires for this”… Not sure if he was referring to Perez(whom he was lapping at the time) or Webber who was catching him and Grosjean…

    On a side note I think Vettel will be crowned champion in the first F1 race I am going to watch from the stands (aka India)…

    1. The full radio transcript shows it was about Perez ignoring blue flags.

  6. He has potentially won the championship as the upcoming Indian Grand prix has been Vettel’s happy place. About today I believe he raced hard and to a plan and that paid him the dividends at the end.

  7. I wouldn’t be surprised if Vettel becomes an alcoholic due to all the champagne he’s been drinking lately…

    1. @vettel1 He has the tears of his rivals’ fans to compensate =P

      1. Just nit his drinks bottle to supply them @silence :P (it broke in Korea, incase you didn’t catch the reference)

    2. LOL, he has been on alcohol for the past 13 races bar the muslim countries.

  8. Suzuka is one of my favourite tracks… I haven’t missed the race in over 20 years, but today I chose to work and really could have cared less about who won. It’s more exciting to go to Rachadapisek and watch kids race their 125cc bikes on public roads. The “Thrill is Gone”

  9. Decades ago Gary Lineker said “football is a simple game. Twenty-two men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end, the Germans always win.”, not long ago Schumacher/Byrne/Brawn/Todt/Ferrari combination made F1 a simple race that Schumacher always won and from some time now, it is a simple race that in the end Vettel wins…

  10. There was a quiet, poignant moment when Hamilton slid wide at turn one with a puncture. As thin as his hopes were, a turn of good speed by Hamilton in a car that could qualify up front was our only hope, as thin as they were, of some semblance of drama going forward. All hail him, though. Even when relegated to 3rd at the start, he still waltzes to victory. He get’s better and better. F1’s slings and arrows—after turn one it could have been Vettel out or sent to the back with a broken wing and Hamilton sailing off into victory. But just a few inches or a couple feet said no.

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