Red Bulls Sink A Titanic Script
What's that saying about horses and water? All the ingredients were in place for a titanic clash after ten laps of the Japanese GP when the Safety Car trundled back into the pits to leave the five title contenders in a one-second-long queue. The scene was set. The lead actors had the stage to themselves. And then the Bulls ripped up the hoped-for script and expressed a processional monologue of devastating superiority. They were just too good for the Japanese GP to be a good race.
Fernando Alonso will fight to the last and is driving with as much defiance as skill, but the Red Bull is an awesome piece of motor racing machinery. Do not be fooled by the proximity of Alonso to Mark Webber and Seb Vettel at the chequered flag. The Bulls were in a league of their own all weekend even when enjoying cruise control.
Too Close To Call For Two
For the two Red Bull drivers, the championship situation is straightforward: Vettel will win the title if he wins all of the remaining three races, Webber will prevail if he manages a race win and a couple of podium finishes.
Both men had reason to celebrate on Sunday - paradoxically, Webber increased his lead on a day that Vettel his closed the gap to his team-mate - and both have reason to believe that this will be their year. The Aussie has the points advantage. The German has the momentum. The line between them is fine.
And Fernando? There's still hope for him too - not least because the Bulls have previously self-destructed this season and the Spaniard will only have to recall 2007 as an example of how what seems to be a two-car race can crown a third competitor as champion. But the odds, and the class car of the field, are against him.
Hamilton Losing Out In Title Race
But over at McLaren, hope is running out and close to be extinguished.
Anything less than a 1-2 for McLaren in Korea and McLaren's drivers can be written out of the World Championship equation. The mathematics provide greater scope for belief, with Lewis Hamilton only a race win and a bit behind the championship leader and Jenson Button just a few points further adrift, but, as Hamilton himself asked this Sunday, "How many points are the Bulls going to drop now?" Barring a repeat of their Turkish disaster, not many. So long as Vettel and Webber keep their wheels pointing in the right direction, fifth is the very least they will secure - just as Lewis did in his stricken vehicle this weekend.
Moreover, McLaren still remain the third fastest team on the grid. All of which makes it very unlikely that either Hamilton or Button will be crowned champion next month. In percentage terms, their title prospects might now be as low as 10%.
Speed Trumps Super Strategy
Too clever for his own good? Not really. Jenson's contrary strategy ultimately proved an error in so much as it cost him a few seconds, but as he acknowledged after the race it did not cost him a podium finish. Whatever the strategy, fourth was the maximum he could achieve after losing out to Fernando into the first corner.
Approaching the right-hander, Button had a car length's advantage over Alonso but was baulked by Webber and then muscled aside by the Ferrari. That unreplayed moment had twice the impact on Button's result than the delay in pitting him for soft tyres. Speed was the problem, not strategy.
Kobyashi Tries Out A New Combination
Thank goodness for the driving of Kamui Kobyashi because the Japanese GP would have been a dull procession without his daring. The pick of his moves has to be his second overtake of Alguersuari into the hairpin because he completely outfoxed the Spaniard by going around the outside of his Toro Rosso having gone up the inside into the same corner ten laps before. This hasn't been said regularly of Kobyashi during his nascent career, but it was a move that required brains as well as brawn.
Pete Gill
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