[Official] Round 16: Japanese Grand Prix

[frostie]

There are now only four(or is it three, who knows?) races remaining to settle the battle to be crowned world champion. Suzuka plays host to the Japanese Grand Prix in the early hours of Sunday morning and by the time the chequered flag falls we could be a long way to deciding who will be champion!

My preview is now online

BBC Schedule

Friday 8 October

Practice one: 0155-0335, BBC Red Button

Practice two: 0555-0735, BBC Red Button

Saturday 9 October

Practice three: 0255-0405, BBC Red Button

Qualifying: 0500-0730, BBC One

Qualifying re-run: 1300-1415, BBC One

Sunday 10 October

Race: 0600-0915, BBC One

Race re-run: 1400-1600, BBC One

Year	Driver	Team
2009	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull
2006	Fernando Alonso	Renault
2005	Kimi Raikkonen	McLaren
2004	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari
2003	Rubbens Barrichello	Ferrari
2002	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari
2001	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari
2000	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari
1999	Mika Hakkinen	McLaren
1998	Mika Hakkinen	McLaren
1997	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari
1996	Damon Hill	Williams
1995	Michael Schumacher	Benetton
1994	Damon Hill	Williams
1993	Ayrton Senna	McLaren
1992	Ricardo Patrese	Williams
1991	Gerhard Berger	McLaren
1990	Nelson Piquet	Benetton
1989	Alesandro Nannini	Benetton
1988	Ayrton Senna	McLaren
1987	Gerhard Berger	Ferrari

Misc

Weather

Chatroom

[stripedcat]

Great round up. Suzuka is a great circuit. I accept it is difficult to overtake there, but it is a real circuit. It looks like rain will only effect qualifying, so that might place the front running cars down the field - if they miscalculate the qualifying. It might spice the race up.

[Bononi]

Wow ! Here it comes the Japanese GP. Fortunately (or not) is not the title decider anymore... but hey, I love this track !

[E.B]

The forecasts as usual vary, but most say it will be moist on Friday, wet on Saturday and cloudy Sunday..... some forecasts have a wet Sunday as well.



A good detailed circuit forecast
(complete with expected track temps and lots of pretty illustrations by clicking on some of the buttons in the menu.)

[Marbot]

This is a great track. F1 cars more able to overtake would make it better or at least as good as it once was. The prospect of a wet qualifying seems very much odds on!

[ECW Dan Selby]

Great intro as ever, frostie. Liked the history on Degner. Did a bit of research in to the old Suzuka track. Never realised that the Degners used to be one flowing flat-out right, and there also never used to be the final chicane there.

Selby

[Bononi]

Thanks, but I would like a little bit different.

[TF110]

practice 1 will be on in a matter of an hour and a half, here's hoping that McLaren can close the gap to the bulls and ferrari's. I'd like to see a close(r) result/race/championship again. not much seperates Vettel Hamilton and Button. -20 for Hammy, -21 for Vettel, and -25 for button. With good results for them and locking out the top spots if they do, they could potentially improve their hopes of the title, with 3 or maybe 2 races left after this.

[strider]

P1 has started and the weather is good, but forecast for tomorrow is pretty poor.

Anthony Davidson has been explaining the start procedure that the F1 drivers have to go through and it is insanely complicated!

[strider]

Halfway through P1 and Lewis has gone off at Degner 2, quite badly damaging the nearside front suspension. Just what he didn't want.

[TF110]

P2 very soon. Hamilton's car is going to be up by then, not too much damage that can't be fixed.

[rpolinski]

Whatever happened to the old McLaren? The McLaren that rebuilt Senna's car in '93 in half the time.

[porscherules]

very sad for hamilton, thats the diference between having a good car and driving at 80 % and make a good time and mac claren hamilton going 110% to try to catch the redbull , overpassing the limits always makes you crash...is like gravity you cant fight with it.

[Marbot]

I don't think that he's trying to beat anyone in FP1. Just another driver error.

[Grandpa_Rob]

Love this race even if it does clash with Bathurst and MotoGP.....in for a great weekend of racing.

[Aysedasi]

I just forget when it's on the TV and miss it - and I'm away from home right now so can't record it either......

[OZ_HCR32]

So, both RBR drivers were slapped on the wrists...."recpect one another children" ... but this weekend is going to end in tears for RBR.

It seems clear already, this early in the weekend that they are racing themselves. RBR dont chace the timesheets on Fridays, my memory tells me every time they have been comfortably quicker in FP1 then they only ended up going quicker and gapping the other teams

So, this weekend seems to be Turkey Rd2....Vettel wants points, is desperate for points and Webber will need this win with his team mate behing him to give him a gap to Alonso, and put Vettel out of the running. Assuming Webber, Vettel Alsonso (Maybe Kuz can sneak into 3rd???) then it means Webber will have 21 points on Alonso and 28 on Vettel....

IF, we reverse it and Vettel bags 1st with Webber behind him it means Webber only has 14 points to both Alonso and Vettel....surely this is far too tight for RBR going into the final 3 races. Dont think RBR or Webber want the win given to him....but Webber really needs to show the pace he has shown in past years at Suzuka this weekend as he has a quick team mate and its critical he beats him this weekend.

Playing with the numbers, if Weber bags a win in the next 4 races it really only means he needs 3 3rds to sew it up provided Sebv doesnt win the other 3.

So, if there are any side by side action, is it going to be another bash-clash lottery dip to see who still has a drivable car? I suspect Vettel will ptu Webber to the sword thinking Webber will protect his points lead and take 18 points...will Mark let him push him around?????

[Marbot]

Always assuming that they both make it through turn one. It wouldn't be the first time that two championship protaganists went off there together.

[strider]

Originally Posted by rpolinski

Whatever happened to the old McLaren? The McLaren that rebuilt Senna's car in '93 in half the time.

That was 17 years ago. The cars are very much more complex nowadays.

Originally Posted by Marbot

I don't think that he's trying to beat anyone in FP1. Just another driver error.

He'd just set the fastest time in sector 1 and in his own words it was probably a question of going too fast too early.

I'm very disappointed, because it has set back his weekend by a big chunk.

[Marbot]

Originally Posted by strider

I'm very disappointed, because it has set back his weekend by a big chunk.

He never really got going in FP2. FP3 could be wet and thereafter it would be a case of 'run what yer brung'.

Tyres could be an interesting topic this weekend....

[stripedcat]

Originally Posted by Marbot

He never really got going in FP2. FP3 could be wet and thereafter it would be a case of 'run what yer brung'.

Tyres could be an interesting topic this weekend....

Yeah because Suzuka has high braking in some of the hairpins is quite tough on tyres. We could see three stops possibly.

As for McLaren I think they just don't have the car for the coming races. The only race I think they could be strong at will be Brazil.

I think on Sunday it will be a three way fight with Alosno, Vettel, and Webber.

[Pingguest]

Rain is expected for both qualifying and race. For tomorrow heavy rain is expected!

[Marbot]

It doesn't seem to matter whose forecast you're looking at, FP3 and qualifying look likely to be a complete washout.

http://live.autosport.com/commentary.php/id/277

[Bononi]

That's just great ! Some rain is always exciting for racing.

[TF110]

So with qualifying wet, will they still run the dry set up and compromise starting position compared a wet set up, but a dry race? I think they'd do so. Go for the dry set up thinking it won't rain during race day and take your chances in qualifying seeing how far up you can make it for a dry set-up in wet qualifying. Also, the fact Lewis was only 13th in FP2 was because the rear wing he was using was one of the older ones combined with newer parts on the car in other places. It was said that a team member has to fly in from Britain to Japan with parts for the new rear wing. Button was just testing all the components to see how they played out. It wasn't like he was going for super times trying to dominate. Red Bull might look like they're in the lead now, but I think McLaren and Ferrari have a thing or two for them. Let's see how FP3 and Qualifying go.