Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel won the Japanese
Grand Prix from team-mate Mark Webber but
must wait to win his fourth world title.
Vettel has a 90-point lead over Ferrari's Fernando
Alonso with only 100 still available and is almost certain
to seal it at the next race in India.
Alonso was fourth, behind Webber and Lotus's Romain
Grosjean at Suzuka.
Vettel's fifth win in a row came after a perfectly
executed strategic race after falling to third at the start.
The German, who started second behind Webber,
slipped to third at the start as Grosjean catapulted into
the lead from fourth on the grid.
Vettel narrowly avoided front-wing damage after being
clipped by Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes on the run down
to the first corner. The touch punctured Hamilton's
tyre, which damaged his rear bodywork and forced
him into retirement.
Grosjean led through the first pit stops, with the Red
Bulls measuring their pace behind.
When Webber stopped on lap 25 and the Lotus and
Vettel stayed out, it became clear the Australian would
be doing three stops and his rivals only two.
Grosjean made his second stop on lap 29 but Vettel
waited a further eight laps and his controlled driving
and the unmatched pace of the Red Bull meant he was
only 2.1 seconds behind the Frenchman when he
returned to the track.
On his vastly fresher tyres, Vettel took only three laps
to catch and pass Grosjean heading down the pit
straight to start lap 40, at the end of which Webber
made his final stop, fitting the faster medium tyres
rather than the hards his two rivals were using.
Webber was with Grosjean by lap 45 but found it much
harder to pass the Lotus than Vettel had, finally
managing it going into Turn One at the start of the
52nd of 53 laps.
The time he lost ensured he was not able to challenge
his team-mate for the lead, which might have been
possible had Webber managed to pass Grosjean straight
away.
"Ichiban, ichiban," Vettel said on the team radio after
the race - "number one" in Japanese.
"I'm blown away with today's race," he said afterwards.
"I had a very, very poor start. I clipped a little bit the
front wing, I couldn't go anywhere.
"We looked after the tyres and had incredible pace
towards the end and we managed to beat Romain and
Mark towards the end."
Vettel needs a top-five finish in India to be absolutely
sure of the title, but will also seal it if Alonso scores no
more than 10 points more than him.
Behind the leaders, Alonso had started eighth and
moved up to sixth behind team-mate Felipe Massa at
the start.
The Spaniard lost a further place to Hulkenberg when
Sauber made an earlier first pit stop.
But he was able to pass Massa into Turn One on lap 26
after the Brazilian had cost himself time by going
defensive into the chicane.
Hulkenberg held on to fourth through the second pit
stops, but Alonso dropped back four seconds or so to
conserve his tyres and then came back at the German
later in the stint and passed him into Turn One on lap
46.
That left Hulkenberg to fend off Raikkonen, but the Finn
finally took fifth place with a brilliant move around the
outside into the chicane with just over two laps to go.
Hulkenberg's team-mate Esteban Gutierrez scored his
first F1 points with seventh to underline Sauber's rise
in form in the second half of the season.
Mercedes' Nico Rosberg took eighth after a drive-
through penalty following an unsafe release at a pit
stop, ahead of McLaren's Jenson Button and Massa,
who lost ground with a drive-through penalty for
speeding in the pit lane.
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