Sunday, October 10, 2004
Schumi storms to Japan win
JAPANESE GP RESULT
1 M Schumacher (Ferrari)2 R Schumacher (Williams)3 J Button (BAR)4 T Sato (BAR)5 F Alonso (Renault)6 K Raikkonen (McLaren)7 JP Montoya (Williams)8 G Fisichella (Sauber)
Race as it happened
Photos from Suzuka Michael Schumacher has won a record 13th race in a season with a crushing performance at the Japanese Grand Prix.
The world champion took pole position on a drying track in the first ever Sunday morning qualifying and stormed away to an unchallenged victory.
Ralf Schumacher won a strategic battle with Jenson Button's BAR-Honda to take second in his Williams-BMW.
David Coulthard was in the thick of that fight before a collision with Rubens Barrichello took him out.
Coulthard casts no blame The Scot, who missed out on his best result of the season, and Button chose to make only two stops, while the two Schumacher brothers made three.
"For us it was pretty clear we would have a good race pace. I was pretty confident I could do it," said Michael Schumacher.
"We had to be flat-out until the pit-stops but we have dominated all year and I didn't expect anything different here. We were superb."
I went for the two stops because it worked pretty well for me in the last race
Jenson Button
BAR close on second place But while Michael and Ralf Schumacher had more than enough pace to make a three-stop strategy work, it was not so successful for Button's team-mate Takuma Sato.
The Japanese qualified third behind the Schumachers, but lost a place to Button at the start.
The team ordered them to swap places to enable Sato to make the most of his strategy.
However, Sato was unable to make up enough time and he was not quite able to join in the battle for third place.
Button said: "I went for the two stops because it worked pretty well for me in the last race and I'm used to driving the car when it is pretty heavy (with fuel)."
He was set for fifth place before Coulthard's retirement with 14 laps to go promoted him to fourth.
Grandstand discussion area:Give your thoughts on the Japanese Grand Prix Fernando Alonso drove a strong but unobtrusive race to fifth place in the Renault after qualifying 11th in a wet but drying session that led to a mixed grid and an intriguing race.
The Spaniard was initially held up by team-mate Jacques Villeneuve, who headed a queue that also included McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen, Williams' Juan Pablo Montoya and Barrichello.
Villeneuve held up a huge train of cars early onVilleneuve continued to lack pace in his second race for Renault, and caused a bottleneck in the early laps.
Once clear of him, Montoya and Barrichello closed up on Jarno Trulli's Toyota, with Sauber's Giancarlo Fisichella joining the battle.
A move by Montoya on Trulli at the chicane on lap 23 led to him losing two places and Barrichello finally squeezing past to the head of the group.
But Montoya recovered to seventh place, behind Raikkonen, whose pace on a two-stop strategy leapfrogged him ahead of his future McLaren team-mate.
Fisichella completed the points scorers in eighth place.
Toyota Trulli impressed Trulli dropped out of the picture as the race went on and finished 11th - three places ahead of team-mate Olivier Panis.
JAPANESE GP RESULT
1 M Schumacher (Ferrari)2 R Schumacher (Williams)3 J Button (BAR)4 T Sato (BAR)5 F Alonso (Renault)6 K Raikkonen (McLaren)7 JP Montoya (Williams)8 G Fisichella (Sauber)
Race as it happened
Photos from Suzuka Michael Schumacher has won a record 13th race in a season with a crushing performance at the Japanese Grand Prix.
The world champion took pole position on a drying track in the first ever Sunday morning qualifying and stormed away to an unchallenged victory.
Ralf Schumacher won a strategic battle with Jenson Button's BAR-Honda to take second in his Williams-BMW.
David Coulthard was in the thick of that fight before a collision with Rubens Barrichello took him out.
Coulthard casts no blame The Scot, who missed out on his best result of the season, and Button chose to make only two stops, while the two Schumacher brothers made three.
"For us it was pretty clear we would have a good race pace. I was pretty confident I could do it," said Michael Schumacher.
"We had to be flat-out until the pit-stops but we have dominated all year and I didn't expect anything different here. We were superb."
I went for the two stops because it worked pretty well for me in the last race
Jenson Button
BAR close on second place But while Michael and Ralf Schumacher had more than enough pace to make a three-stop strategy work, it was not so successful for Button's team-mate Takuma Sato.
The Japanese qualified third behind the Schumachers, but lost a place to Button at the start.
The team ordered them to swap places to enable Sato to make the most of his strategy.
However, Sato was unable to make up enough time and he was not quite able to join in the battle for third place.
Button said: "I went for the two stops because it worked pretty well for me in the last race and I'm used to driving the car when it is pretty heavy (with fuel)."
He was set for fifth place before Coulthard's retirement with 14 laps to go promoted him to fourth.
Grandstand discussion area:Give your thoughts on the Japanese Grand Prix Fernando Alonso drove a strong but unobtrusive race to fifth place in the Renault after qualifying 11th in a wet but drying session that led to a mixed grid and an intriguing race.
The Spaniard was initially held up by team-mate Jacques Villeneuve, who headed a queue that also included McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen, Williams' Juan Pablo Montoya and Barrichello.
Villeneuve held up a huge train of cars early onVilleneuve continued to lack pace in his second race for Renault, and caused a bottleneck in the early laps.
Once clear of him, Montoya and Barrichello closed up on Jarno Trulli's Toyota, with Sauber's Giancarlo Fisichella joining the battle.
A move by Montoya on Trulli at the chicane on lap 23 led to him losing two places and Barrichello finally squeezing past to the head of the group.
But Montoya recovered to seventh place, behind Raikkonen, whose pace on a two-stop strategy leapfrogged him ahead of his future McLaren team-mate.
Fisichella completed the points scorers in eighth place.
Toyota Trulli impressed Trulli dropped out of the picture as the race went on and finished 11th - three places ahead of team-mate Olivier Panis.
