Japan: The Race Seen from the Pits

Red Bull

Sebastian Vettel – Winner

Mark Webber – 9th

Christian Horner, Team Principal: « A very good result for Sebastian; winning with such domination truly tightens the championship. It was a real masterclass in driving from Sebastian today, he was truly above the rest. The frustration for the team is the incident between Mark and Grosjean at the second corner, where Grosjean completely missed his turn and hit Mark, putting him out of the race. Mark then had to return to the pits to check the car, change tires and the front wing, and before he had a chance to catch up with the back of the pack, the race resumed, so he was 20 seconds behind. His comeback from there was excellent, and he drove very well. It’s a pity we couldn’t do better today, but it’s always fantastic to win at Suzuka. »

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Ferrari

Felipe Massa – 2nd

Fernando Alonso – Abandon

Stefano Domenicali, Team Principal: Personally, I don’t believe in luck, but given what’s happened in the last few days, I’m starting to change my mind… The Gods didn’t shine on us yesterday and it wasn’t any better today! What happened to Fernando at the start is an example of the many variables you can’t control in this sport, and we have to accept that, but we are all clearly disappointed. This feeling of regret is even stronger when you look at the splendid race carried out by Felipe, who delivered an impeccable performance. It was nice to see him back on the podium after far too long! This second place is an important result for him and for the team, and it comes at one of the most difficult and delicate moments of the season. A decision regarding his future? One step at a time, because for now, we’re enjoying this podium together.

Today, we could clearly have scored a very different number of points, but we must accept the reality: tonight someone is laughing, but as the saying goes, he who laughs last laughs best! Five races is a lot, and anything can still happen. We must react calmly to this cruel moment for Fernando and work with maximum focus on car development, as we have in recent months. If we are in this position to fight for the title in the final races, it’s because our work has been good; otherwise, we would be further behind. Fernando’s comments on our development? I can very well understand his frustration at the moment, and you can be sure that we are doing our best to provide him with a car that matches his talent.

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Sauber

Kamui Kobayashi – 3rd

Sergio Pérez – Retirement

Monisha Kaltenborn, Executive Director: I can’t express how happy I am! A podium finish in his home Grand Prix for Kamui is simply incredible. He delivered a remarkable race today, particularly at the end when Jenson Button was putting him under immense pressure. He didn’t make a single mistake and defended his third place with great style. Sergio was also in a position to achieve a great result, but unfortunately, his attack on Lewis Hamilton didn’t work out. All my compliments to the team that progressed throughout the weekend and ultimately delivered a fantastic and very emotional result.

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McLaren

Jenson Button – 4th

Lewis Hamilton – 5th

Martin Whitmarsh, Team Director: When you consider the fact that the Red Bull drivers started from the first and second positions this afternoon and our drivers started 8th and 9th, and the fact that they (Red Bull) only increased their lead in the constructors’ championship by five points, it has been a nice damage limitation on our part.

Jenson and Lewis both delivered strong and combative races, scoring a total of 22 points for the championship, but of course, given our incredible run in the recent Grand Prix, we hoped to do a bit better than 4th and 5th when we arrived in Suzuka earlier this week.

We did not optimize our performance during qualifying yesterday, and today, we struggled with the tires at several points during the race. Additionally, Jenson was unlucky to get stuck behind Daniel (Ricciardo), and he lost time after his first stop as a result.

The second stop for Lewis was excellent – a superb strategic move well-executed by our mechanics – and this allowed Lewis to come out more or less alongside Kimi (Räikkönen), overtaking him at the first corner. Then, he pulled away to secure the valuable 10 points for 5th place.

From Japan, we will head to South Korea, where we hope to score big points. The battle for the championships this season – both drivers and constructors – will be an intense struggle. But the entire Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team will work very hard during the last five Grand Prix to ensure that we will be at the forefront when things are decided after an exciting fight.

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Lotus

Kimi Räikkönen – 6th

Translate: Romain Grosjean – 19th

Eric Boullier, Team Principal: « Obviously, it didn’t go as well as expected. We could see in Singapore, when Romain came back on track, that the other drivers put pressure on him at the start. Here, it was a bit simpler, but he made a small mistake by misjudging his pace compared to Mark’s. I think he made some progress, but it’s unfortunate that it happens again under these circumstances. With Kimi, the pace of the car wasn’t as good as hoped. Starting seventh, he had high hopes, but if you don’t have enough pace, it doesn’t work. We couldn’t put everything together to make his race better and help him gain more positions. »

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Sahara Force India

Nico Hülkenberg – 7th

Paul di Resta – 12th

Robert Fernley, Deputy Team Principal: « An excellent drive by Nico, and it is very encouraging to see such a good race pace on a track that has never really been one of our strong points. We made the right strategic choices and for much of the race, Nico was pushing hard to get ahead of Lewis. Paul’s race was seriously compromised by a poor start, which we will investigate, and which prevented us from placing both cars in the points. In terms of the championship, we are slightly ahead of Williams and Sauber is still in sight. I would also like to pay special tribute to both garage teams for their incredible work this weekend. They were very busy and did a fantastic job in difficult conditions. Overall, it was a remarkable team effort. »

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Williams

Pastor Maldonado – 8th

Bruno Senna – 14th

Mark Gillan, Chief Operations Engineer: Both drivers performed well today with a solid pace throughout the event. Bruno’s race was compromised by an early stop to replace his front wing, and then with the penalty he received for the contact with Rosberg. Pastor managed his tires well during the race and brought the car home to a well-deserved eighth place. We are immediately turning our attention to the Korean Grand Prix next weekend.

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Toro Rosso

Daniel Ricciardo – 10th

Jean-Eric Vergne – 13th

Franz Tost, Team Principal: « We have now scored points in three of the last four races, which is very encouraging and is due to the efforts made by everyone, on the track or at the factory. Once again, we saw that our race pace allowed us to fight for positions in the points, even when starting far back on the grid. However, if we can improve our performance on Saturday afternoon, we could aim for better results. Daniel moved from 14th on the grid to 10th under the checkered flag, and he had some good battles, with a grand finale fighting to hold off Schumacher towards the end. At the same time, Jean-Eric also did well for his first time on this very demanding circuit, moving from 19th to 13th, putting in some fast laps towards the end. »

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Mercedes

Michael Schumacher – 11th

Nico Rosberg – Retirement

Ross Brawn, Team Principal: Given his starting position today, Michael had a very good race, and it’s a shame he couldn’t score a few points to reward his efforts. However, starting 23rd on the grid was too complicated a challenge, despite a very good strategy and an encouraging pace from the car in cooler temperatures.

The accident that caused Nico to retire was really unfortunate because the car seemed good and he could have scored good points if he hadn’t had to stop. There were encouraging signs during this race and we will take them into consideration as we continue our work to improve the car.

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Caterham

Heikki Kovalainen – 15th

Vitaly Petrov – 17th

The Caterham team has not published statements from the team’s representatives

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Marussia

Timo Glock – 16th

Charles Pic – Withdrawal

John Booth, Team Director: We were a little scared on the way to the starting grid. Timo stopped the car in front of the stand when he felt there might be an issue with the front left wheel. Once we had the car back in the garage, it was clear there was indeed a problem with a wheel nut he had hit, which had fallen off another team’s car when it was driving through the pit lane. This could have been disastrous for us as it could have caused a lot of damage, but when we arrived at the grid, we thoroughly inspected the car and were very lucky to get away like that. Timo delivered an excellent race performance as he has for several races now. We lost time in the first stint since we don’t have the advantage of KERS, and it’s difficult to maintain position on the track. The other two stints were perfect, and we managed to keep up with Kovalainen to be four seconds behind him. But we took a final blue flag for Hamilton three laps from the end, which pushed us back to eight seconds at the finish. Charles seemed to struggle for better grip in the first stint with the hard tires, and we chose to stop him and switch to the softs, which allowed him to make up some time. Unfortunately, during his last pit stop, Charles was caught by the lack of grip in the pit lane and overshot the spot, and he lost a lot of time. There was then quite a high air consumption on his engine, and Charles had to retire. Overall, we have achieved our objectives.

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HRT

Pedro de la Rosa – 18th

Narain Karthikeyan – Abandon

**Luis Pérez-Sala, Team Principal:** As is often the case in races like this, on one hand, I am happy because we were competitive; we finished a lap down from the leader, which shows that our pace was good. But, on the other hand, it’s a shame that Narain had to retire. He got a good start and was driving well, but the car had a slight problem with the floor, and for safety reasons, we stopped him. We will now see the extent of the problem. But overall, it’s a positive weekend because we have made progress, taken better care of our tires, and improved our times. We hope this progression will continue.

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