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Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull Racing drove the perfect race, leading from start to finish to win the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka. The race was the 22-year old's fourth victory in his fledgling F1 career. Jarno Trulli (Toyota) and Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) finished as they started too, converting their second and third place qualifying runs into fairly routine podium finishes.

This victory also keeps the race for the drivers' championship alive as Vettel (69 points) closes in on his main rivals - the two Brawn GP drivers, Jenson Button (85 points) and Rueben Barrichello (71 points) who finished in eighth and seventh place respectively. That being said, with just two races to go, Vettel will need t o keep winning, and hope that Button especially continues to fare poorly. The constructors' championship meanwhile came incredibly close to being settled, but Brawn GP at 156 points still need another half a point (realistically one point) to secure top spot in their debut season in Formula 1. Ironically, today's race was held at a race track owned by Honda, the original owners of the Brawn GP team.

The 47-year old, 5.8 km Suzuka circuit is one of the most challenging circuits in the F1 calendar and Saturday's qualifying set the tone with 3 stoppages due to accidents. Timo Glock (Toyota) suffered a leg injury and couldn't start the race on Sunday, while Sebastian Buemi (Torro Rosso), Heikki Kovalainen (McLaren), Adrian Sutil (Force India), Jenson Button, Rubens Barrichello and Fernando Alonso were handed place penalties for varying offences.

While Vettel's race from the front of the grid was predominantly a lone drive, Jarno Trulli and Lewis Hamilton fought the entire race for second place. Hamilton used his KERs powered Mercedes engine to get the jump on Trulli going into the first corner, and held onto the advantage all the way to laps 38-39, when the pair made their second round of pitstops. Hamilton's exit from the pits was ruined by a gearbox problem, which meant he coasted about 100 metres down the pitlane. That cost the 2008 world champion a crucial second, which allowed Trulli to easily take second place when he pitted on the following lap. Today's P2 was particularly sweet for the beleaguered Toyota team at their home GP, and should go some way in securing another season in Formula 1 for them.

Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen drove a solid race to finish in fourth, and was followed by Nico Rosberg (Williams) and Nick Heidfeld (BMW Sauber). Two-time former champion Fernando Alonso finished out of the points in 10th place, not too bad considering he started from way down in 16th. Force India's Adrian Sutil was the biggest loser in the pack, finishing a respectable 4th in qualifying, but had to start in eighth place following yesterday's round of penalties. He was able to move up to seventh on the opening lap ahead of Nico Rosberg, but on lap four dropped back to ninth behind Kovalainen. The pair raced nose to tail until Adrian finally moved alongside the Finn on lap 13 going into the chicane. Heikki however refused to yield and the pair touched, sending Adrian into a spin and back down the order to 12th. From that point on Sutil's race was compromised and despite racing hard with the Ferrari of Giancarlo Fisichella he crossed the line in a disappointing 13th overall.

Sutil's teammate Tonio Liuzzi enjoyed a series of battles over the 53 lap race to achieve his second consecutive race finish for Force India. Using a two stop strategy Tonio was able to move up four places on his starting position after battling with the two Renaults, the Williams of Nakajima and Alguersuari's Toro Rosso.

The race was generally incident-free after what we had seen during qualifying, but Jamie Alguersuari's chassis shattering crash on the 43rd lap brough the safety car out on track. As the cars botched up behind each other, only Heidfeld took the opportunity by stealing a place and a crucial world championship point from Barrichello. The race ended with all 16 cars finishing within 14 seconds of each other.

The title fight now moves to Brazil with 16 points between the top 3 drivers. Incidentally this difference is 2 less than what Kimi Raikkonen faced when he stole the prize from McLaren in the exciting 2007 season. Meanwhile, a third place position in the Brazilian Grand Prix will guarantee the drivers' championship to the Jenson Button.

File Photograph Copyright: Cord Rodefeld