Japanese GP 2012 - Results - Tim's second

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It was ‘a walk in the park’ for Vettel, his 3rd victory of the season and the first driver to win back to back races this year, but most importantly he has caught Alonso in the fight for the Championship, the Spanish retiring in the opening seconds of the race. It was the most unusual rostrum with Massa & Kobayashi taking the flanking steps.

Despite 4 of the top 6 qualifiers eliminated in the opening stages Tim and Rodrigo found a way to score golds with their 3 surviving selections. Tim takes the overall victory with a better finishing order (1-4-5 vs 1-4-6) With his second win of 2012 he now sits 12th in the standings, a far cry from earlier days when he was fighting at the bottom of the table with names like with Lou (...or me). Matias and Ian came close in second place with 8 points to keep their spots in the top 10.

Picking Vettel first was a life-saver for 20 of us, and if not for 8 votes on target for Button in 4th this could have easily been our worst race of the year. Nobody ever imagined Massa in second (or any other pay paying position) or Kobayashi in third. In the 5th place column only Maria & Tim predicted Hamilton advancing 4 positions and Rodrigo & Fernando were the only ones with Raikkonen in 6th.

Rocco is now worryingly (for the rest of us) stretching his lead atop of the Championship. Uwe lost distance on him this weekend and the gap is now huge: 6 points (105-99). Fernando had the best result overall in Japan with 11 total points (7+4) to leap to 3rd 2 points behind Uwe (97). Joe (96) has retaken 4th displacing Santiago who’s now tied with resurgent Maria (95). Champ Ian has overtaken Manbos (94-93); Fredrik continues in freefall but is still top 10 with Matias and now Rodrigo joining the top group in a triple tie (89).

The picture in the relegation zone is getting a bit clearer now: Ricky and rookie Ian Mac are claiming last place theirs (74) now that Sebastian (77) and Erik (79) are inching away from the heat.

The best news is that we have our next GP this coming weekend for the 3rd instalment of the Korean GP, so stay tuned, we’ll be in touch again this Thursday.

Cheers

Cato

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