F1 Japan 2010

Heavy rain over Suzuka cancelled Saturday qualifying which was moved to Sunday morning under the rules. Ironically, the last time this rule was invoked, was at Suzuka in 2004! I think it was more of a problem for the television broadcasters than for the teams and drivers.

Drivers love the Suzuka circuit. David Coulthard says it's an old school circuit designed in the 1960s. It's narrow, twisty, and very technical. Suzuka is a true driver's challenge but it's simply not possible for the driver to carry a crappy car around the circuit. Martin Brundle says it separates the men from the boys and that Suzuka terrified him when he drove it in the turbo era cars. It's impressive when driver's describe a track like that.

As expected, Redbull dominated the weekend again locking out the front row of the grid with Vettel on pole. Hamilton impressively qualified in third but had to take a five place penalty for changing a gearbox. This moved Kubica into third on the grid which was a great surprise.

Kubica's position made hime a potential wild card in the race and he demonstrated it by getting a better start to grab second from Webber. The start was a mess with two massive collisions before the first corner. While behind the safety car, a wheel separated from Kubica's car which deprived us of some excitement from the leaders of the race. It was a disaster for Renault as Petrov was one of those involved in the dust up at the start.

The race was exciting but none of it came from the race leaders, Vettel, Webber, and Alonso. The best racing came from Kobayashi who made more passes than any one else. He owned the turn 11 hair pin where he made every pass. Except for the first pass, which was basically out of control, the others were aggressive but very fair. I'm almost sure he passed some drivers twice because he drop back so far after his pit stop.

Schumacher and Rosberg had a nice little fight which demonstrated two points. First, Schumacher is still a capable driver even if we haven't seen much of it this season. Second, Rosberg is more than capable of racing against Schumacher off in a fair fight.

Hamilton has a terrible weekend. He lost third gear and limped to the finish using only fourth through seventh gears to avoid further damage. Somehow he still managed to finish in fifth place which was quite a feat under the conditions. And remember, that was a new gearbox. Some questions are going to be asked.

Webber is still in the lead of the drivers' championship but finishing second or lower is simply not going to win him the drivers' title. His points lead is not enough, so he needs to win one more race or his rivals will a DNF. While the former isn't going to be easy, the latter is just gambling on others having failures in my opinion. Webber's going to have to earn the title and that's the way it should be.

F1 Japan

It is great that F1 has returned to Suzuka, a track that is a serious test of driver skill. With the Friday practise sessions washed out, Saturday qualifying was an even greater challenge as drivers were still struggling to find the right set up. Webber crashed in Saturday practice and couldn't even take part in qualifying which was a total mess, with two red flags in session two and a double waved yellow in session three. The latter had a knock on effect as the drivers who did not slow down where penalized and given grid place penalties on Sunday.

Vettel completely dominated the weekend with a poll and then by leading the entire race for the win, which suddenly puts him back in contention for the driver's championship. However, it may not be a serious threat. The Redbull isn't been very consistent and Vettel has used up all of his eight engines, which could become a factor in the remaining races. But, like everything else this season, you just never know...

Button managed to score one point which was great considering how poorly he started. Barrichello was not happy with his setup and was actually threatened by Button after the safety car bunched everyone together. I assume Barrichello's troubles started on Friday with the wet practice sessions.

Button and Barrichello have consistently finished together in the points scoring positions in the last few races, which suggests that Brawn GP is giving equal equipment to both their drivers. Unfortunately, that works against Barrichallo since he needs a significant advantage to out score Button by seven points per race. I think DNFs are the only way Button can lose the championship now.