JAPANESE GP----------
----------JAPANESE GPThe 15th Round of the 2011 F1 Season will be held in the fantastic Suzuka Circuit, a circuit that were responsible for 10 title decisions. Nelson Piquet in 1987, Ayrton Senna in 1988, 1990 and 1991, Alain Prost in 1989, Damon Hll in 1996, Mika Hakkinen in 1998 and 1999 and Michael Schumacher in 2000 and 2003 celebrated their titles at the japanese circuit.
Designed by John Hugenholtz in 1962, Suzuka first received a F1 race in 1987, back there Japan were in a gap of 10 years without a F1 race, the last one has been the 1977 race in Fuji. Right in its first year, Suzuka held a championship decider, Nigel Mansell crashed his car in a practice session and Nelson Piquet won the title. In the race, Gerhard Berger with a Ferrari scored the pole-position and the victory, there begun the fantastic history of Suzuka.
Propably the biggest rivalry in the history of F1, the duel between Senna and Prost, bring to Suzuka, spetacular moments, good moments, and bad moments, in 1988, Ayrton Senna had a problem in the start, lost a lot of positions and then he did a fantastic race, getting back all the lost positions, and when the rain begins to fall, Senna with all his talent was able to pass Prost, and win his first F1 championship, a moment that will be forever in Suzuka history.
The second round of this battle happened in 1989, a year of many fights inside McLaren between Senna and Prost, and ended with a crash in the Casio Chicane, Senna was able to return, but after cutting the chicane, he lost the victory, that was given to Alessandro Nannini, and Alain Prost won his 3rd championship there. A lot of problems happened after this decision, between Senna and Balestre, the president of FISA. With Ayrton almost leaving F1.
In 1990 it was Senna who crashed into Prost, in the first corner, after Prost had a better start, Senna went right in the back of the frenchman, and Prost saw his title chances vanishes with the remainings of his wrecked car, it was a sad end for a battle that bring to 1990 some great races. Piquet and Moreno done a brazilian 1-2 in the race, and Suzuka decided another championship.
In 1991, Senna was in the fight again, but this time, against Nigel Mansell, and the championship battle last only 11 laps, when Mansell lost his car in the first corner, Senna won his 3rd championship.
The races in Suzuka were allways full of action, battles, overtakes, touches, crashes, and sometimes, rain. And when the rain came in Suzuka, the result were allways a breath-taking race or qualifying. In 1994, the race had to be red flagged due to a heavy rain, but the race was full of action, including a fantastic battle between Mansell and Alesi for the 3rd place, and a fantastic performance from Damon Hill. In 1995 the race has wet and dry moments, and again a great race. In 2000 a very light rain started and helped Schumacher to win the race and the title. In 2004 the schedule of an entire day were cancelled due to a typhoon. In 2005 a fantastic qualifying session, mixed up the grid and provided the most exciting race of Suzuka history, with Raikkonen winning the race in the last lap with a side by side overtake in the first corner, taking the lead from Fisichella.
The rain was there in Fuji too, in 1976 and 2007 two fantastic races with a lot of rain, in 1976 Lauda afraid of the conditions decided not to race, and James Hunt won the title, in 2007 the race was very important to Kimi Raikkonen stay in the fight for the title that he would win in the last race of the season at Interlagos.
Suzuka is a fast track, and a fast track usually bring some heavy shunts, and Suzuka has a collection of hard crashes. In 1987, Nigel Mansell lost his title chances after a huge crash in the "Snake" session, in 1990, Alesi crashed in the first corner, damaged his shoulder and lost the weekend. In 1991 the practice sessions and the saturday qualifying saw a lot of crashes, the most dangerous of these crashes, Eric Bernard from Larrousse, he crashed and broke a leg. In 1994, Barrichello destroyed his Jordan in the wet saturday qualifying, in the race, Brundle hit a marshall that were working on the crashed Footwork of Morbidelli. In 1995, Suzuki ended his F1 career with a big crash in the Snake session. In 2001, a lot of big crashes, Heidfeld destroyed his Sauber, Enge had a big moment at the fast 130R corner, and in the race, Alesi and Raikkonen made a rain of wheels after collide in the Dunlop Corner. In 2002, McNish were responsible for a delay of around 70 minutes in the qualifying session, he lost his car at the 130R corner, crashed hard, flipped over the barriers and after that crash the corner was changed. In 2009, Timmo Glock crashed hard in the last corner, and damaged his leg, that gave Kamui Kobayashi the chance to debut in F1 in the rest of the season.
Suzuka history is rich and full of fantastic moments, the japanese fans are amazing, they are very organized, and they are there in any conditions, rain, wind, sun, it doesn't matter, they are allways there to watch F1, in 2011, after all the problems with the earthquake and the tsunami, it will be sure emotional for everybody the F1 event, so let's hope Kamui Kobayashi can give the japanese fans good moments, like other japanese drivers did in past, the most exciting of all these moments were the incredible 3rd place of Suzuki in the 1990 race, driving a weak Larrousse, Suzuki's podium were a beautiful gift for everyone in the circuit.
The 2011 season is almost decided, Vettel needs only one point in the next races to be the champion, and Button needs to win them all without a single point from Vettel in order to win the championship. So Suzuka has a 99.9% chance to see Vettel winning his 2nd F1 championship.
Weekend Schedule:
Friday, 07 October 2011
Practice 1 10:00 - 11:30
Practice 2 14:00 - 15:30
Saturday, 08 October 2011
Practice 3 11:00 - 12:00
Qualifying 14:00
Sunday, 09 October 2011
Race 15:00
Weather Forecast:
http://www.weather.com/weather/tenday/JAXX0112
Drivers Championship Standings:
1 Sebastian Vettel German RBR-Renault 309
2 Jenson Button British McLaren-Mercedes 185
3 Fernando Alonso Spanish Ferrari 184
4 Mark Webber Australian RBR-Renault 182
5 Lewis Hamilton British McLaren-Mercedes 168
6 Felipe Massa Brazilian Ferrari 84
7 Nico Rosberg German Mercedes 62
8 Michael Schumacher German Mercedes 52
9 Vitaly Petrov Russian Renault 34
10 Nick Heidfeld German Renault 34
11 Adrian Sutil German Force India-Mercedes 28
12 Kamui Kobayashi Japanese Sauber-Ferrari 27
13 Paul di Resta British Force India-Mercedes 20
14 Jaime Alguersuari Spanish STR-Ferrari 16
15 Sebastien Buemi Swiss STR-Ferrari 13
16 Sergio Perez Mexican Sauber-Ferrari 9
17 Rubens Barrichello Brazilian Williams-Cosworth 4
18 Bruno Senna Brazilian Renault 2
19 Pastor Maldonado Venezuelan Williams-Cosworth 1
20 Pedro de la Rosa Spanish Sauber-Ferrari 0
21 Jarno Trulli Italian Lotus-Renault 0
22 Heikki Kovalainen Finnish Lotus-Renault 0
23 Vitantonio Liuzzi Italian HRT-Cosworth 0
24 Jerome d'Ambrosio Belgian Virgin-Cosworth 0
25 Timo Glock German Virgin-Cosworth 0
26 Narain Karthikeyan Indian HRT-Cosworth 0
27 Daniel Ricciardo Australian HRT-Cosworth 0
28 Karun Chandhok Indian Lotus-Renault 0
Constructors Championship Standings:
1 RBR-Renault 491
2 McLaren-Mercedes 353
3 Ferrari 268
4 Mercedes 114
5 Renault 70
6 Force India-Mercedes 48
7 Sauber-Ferrari 36
8 STR-Ferrari 29
9 Williams-Cosworth 5
10 Lotus-Renault 0
11 HRT-Cosworth 0
12 Virgin-Cosworth 0
