10 October 2011

Sebastian Vettel crowned double-world champion at Suzuka


Sebastian Vettel finished the Suzuka Grand Prix in 3rd place, conforming his world championship for the second time, on Sunday 9th of October 2011. The race witnessed the on-form Jenson Button who drove a splendid race to his first dry Mclaren victory, with Fernando Alonso in close second.


Prior to the race, Vettel only need to finish in 10th place, i.e obtaining one point to confirm his driver championship. However, the Red Bull ace never actually complacent about that. He went to set Suzuka on fire and stormed to pole position. Behind him, Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton completed the top three.

At the start, Vettel hold the lead after aggressively hold the fast-starter Button, squeezing him right to the grass, while Hamilton capitalize on that and snatched second place after the first turn. The race also observed the continuity of Hamilton vs Massa episode, with the former apparently touched Massa car on the run to the last corner. The bits fallen off Massa's car triggered the safety car. More after the jump.

Both Button and Alonso jumped Vettel at the pit stop. In the closing stage of the race, Vettel did try to attack Fenando, which the Spaniard give no inch of spare track space, swerving to break the DRS and tow on start-finish straight. He is visibly aggressive and state his intent very clearly that he is defending. Vettel was then advised to chill by his team and take no more risk with Alonso. 

The top three remained in that order to the flag, and by finishing third, Vettel gain enough points to give him unassailable lead in the driver championship. The world hailed the youngest double, back to back F1 world champion! Well done Sebastian!

Full result as below:
Pos.NoDriverTeamLapsTimeGridPts
14Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes53Winner225
25Fernando AlonsoFerrari53+1.1 secs518
31Sebastian VettelRBR-Renault53+2.0 secs115
42Mark WebberRBR-Renault53+8.0 secs612
53Lewis HamiltonMcLaren-Mercedes53+24.2 secs310
67Michael SchumacherMercedes GP53+27.1 secs88
76Felipe MassaFerrari53+28.2 secs46
817Sergio PerezSauber-Ferrari53+39.3 secs174
910Vitaly PetrovRenault F153+42.6 secs102
108Nico RosbergMercedes GP53+44.3 secs231
1114Adrian SutilForce India-Mercedes53+54.4 secs11
1215Paul di RestaForce India-Mercedes53+62.3 secs12
1316Kamui KobayashiSauber-Ferrari53+63.7 secs7
1412Pastor MaldonadoWilliams-Cosworth53+64.1 secs14
1519Jaime AlguersuariSTR-Ferrari53+66.6 secs16
169Bruno SennaRenault F153+72.6 secs9
1711Rubens BarrichelloWilliams-Cosworth53+74.1 secs13
1820Heikki KovalainenLotus-Renault53+87.8 secs18
1921Jarno TrulliLotus-Renault53+96.1 secs19
2024Timo GlockVirgin-Cosworth51+2 Laps21
2125Jerome d'AmbrosioVirgin-Cosworth51+2 Laps20
2222Daniel RicciardoHRT-Cosworth51+2 Laps22
2323Vitantonio LiuzziHRT-Cosworth50+3 Laps24
Ret18Sebastien BuemiSTR-Ferrari11+42 Laps15