The Japanese Grand Prix - Highlights

:00:13. > :00:23.Previously on F1: wow, fabulous stuff. What entertainment.

:00:23. > :00:33.close! Fantastic stuff. That blows this championship wide open.

:00:33. > :00:33.

:00:33. > :01:16.Apology for the loss of subtitles for 43 seconds

:01:16. > :01:20.Good afternoon and welcome to the grid for the Japanese Grand Prix.

:01:20. > :01:23.This is the place to be ahead of the race. But this week of all

:01:23. > :01:31.weeks, most of the talk has not been about what has been happening

:01:31. > :01:40.on the track. We have a story that no one has. We

:01:40. > :01:50.have a relationship that no one has. Not winning is frustrating.

:01:50. > :01:53.

:01:53. > :02:03.# Is it getting better? # Do I feel the same?

:02:03. > :02:07.

:02:07. > :02:13.# Will it make it easier on me now? Hit it is all over for Lewis

:02:13. > :02:19.Hamilton. He will not be here as world champion. Lewis Hamilton is

:02:19. > :02:29.in trouble! This is the end of the world championship dream. It is

:02:29. > :02:30.

:02:30. > :02:40.heartbreak for Hamilton. I am a team player. I am not a liar. I

:02:40. > :02:41.

:02:41. > :02:48.couldn't tell you how sorry I am. We gave it our best shot. We would

:02:48. > :02:57.like to have had the fastest car. Of course I get the penalty. Maybe

:02:57. > :03:02.it is because I am black. That is what Ali G says. I will always have

:03:02. > :03:12.McLaren. It is my home. I am so appreciative of the opportunity

:03:12. > :03:12.

:03:12. > :04:02.Apology for the loss of subtitles for 43 seconds

:04:02. > :04:07.they have given me and the success I am so grateful for this

:04:07. > :04:11.opportunity. I really appreciate it. It has been quite a journey for

:04:11. > :04:15.both him and us. As they say, you don't get to experience the Highers

:04:15. > :04:19.unless you feel the lows. Heaven knows, there have been plenty of

:04:19. > :04:23.those for Lewis Hamilton says he has been at McLaren, a six-year

:04:23. > :04:28.partnership that now has just six races to run. He will hope to do

:04:28. > :04:32.the business somehow here in Suzuka. We will see where he qualified in a

:04:32. > :04:37.few moments. Alongside me, David Coulthard. You know how it feels as

:04:37. > :04:40.a driver to leave McLaren, one of the biggest teams. What will

:04:41. > :04:44.Lewis's emotions have been? making the decision, I am sure the

:04:44. > :04:50.emotions were running high. But once the decision is made, drivers

:04:50. > :04:53.move on. You get over incidents and accidents quickly. He will be

:04:53. > :04:59.concentrating on doing the best he can, and then off to Mercedes.

:04:59. > :05:07.has created a domino effect. Sergio Perez will take Lewis's sit at

:05:07. > :05:11.McLaren. He said he went to McLaren to put himself up against the best.

:05:11. > :05:16.He will be happy with how he has performed. He must feel he is

:05:16. > :05:19.getting a easier team-mate coming in than Lewis Hamilton. It remains

:05:19. > :05:24.to be seen how Sergio Perez deals with the bright lights at the front

:05:24. > :05:29.of the grid. All of this has led to Michael Schumacher announcing his

:05:29. > :05:33.retirement, and at that he did so at a track where he has won on six

:05:33. > :05:37.occasions, a reminder of the power he once possessed. He has blown all

:05:37. > :05:40.the records away. He probably picked Japan as the place to

:05:40. > :05:44.announce it because he knew it was so far away from anything else in

:05:44. > :05:47.Europe that we get the peace to get on and drive the car. The men at

:05:47. > :05:57.the front are ready for this, as are the rest of the drivers as they

:05:57. > :06:27.

:06:27. > :06:30.David, the guys arrive here under the hot Japanese sun, knowing that

:06:30. > :06:34.today a very special three and a half miles of tarmac of its them.

:06:34. > :06:37.It is a classic Grand Prix track that challenges the drivers to the

:06:37. > :06:41.limits. As the sun shines here and the wind blows, the crowd are

:06:41. > :06:47.expecting a classic. It is a really nice atmosphere down here on the

:06:47. > :06:50.grid. Going back 24 hours, yesterday was about covering the

:06:50. > :06:54.challenge of those three and a half miles quicker than anyone else, and

:06:54. > :07:04.here is who managed it. Qualify got off to a heated start,

:07:04. > :07:05.

:07:05. > :07:09.with Senna being held up. Jean-Eric Vergne will start 21st. From the

:07:09. > :07:12.star, Michael Schumacher knew he would drop from where he qualified

:07:12. > :07:16.after his grid penalty for crashing in Singapore. Mercedes really

:07:16. > :07:21.struggled, and both Schumacher And Rosberg went out in due to.

:07:21. > :07:26.Ferrari knew it would be tough at this circuit, but perhaps not this

:07:26. > :07:30.tough. Championship leader Fernando Alonso qualified 7th, with his

:07:30. > :07:33.team-mate Felipe Massa not even making it into Q3. McLaren have

:07:33. > :07:38.been looking but all we can, but a bad set up Joyce from Lewis

:07:38. > :07:42.Hamilton ruined his crisis. Despite Jenson Button's best efforts, a

:07:42. > :07:46.penalty for a gearbox change means he will start from eight. Local

:07:46. > :07:51.hero canary Kobayashi gave the crowd plenty to cheer with a great

:07:51. > :07:55.lap. He qualified in fourth. But Red Bull really impressed.

:07:55. > :08:03.Sebastian Vettel put in a stunning lap to take pole. Mark Webber had

:08:03. > :08:06.to settle for second. So, Red Bull take their first front-row lock out

:08:06. > :08:12.of the season. Jenson Button's penalty means Kobayashi gets the

:08:12. > :08:17.highest starting position for a Japanese driver at his home race.

:08:17. > :08:27.Raikkonen stars 7th. Lewis Hamilton has a lot of what to do from the

:08:27. > :08:35.ninth. Paul di Resta is 11th. His team-mate starts from 15th. Heikki

:08:35. > :08:39.Kovalainen is 17th. And Michael Schumacher is at the back of the

:08:39. > :08:49.grid. A far this is how the championship

:08:49. > :09:06.

:09:06. > :09:11.David, I arrived at work this morning, and he was professionally

:09:11. > :09:19.watching Sebastian's lap on the BBC Sport website on your laptop. What

:09:19. > :09:25.did you make of it? It was a beautiful up. -- A beautiful lap.

:09:25. > :09:29.But he was in fifth gear until he got to turn four. We can see them

:09:29. > :09:34.gearing up the car for him. He brings fond memories. He won the

:09:34. > :09:42.title 12 months ago. It was a great victory. He seems to be in harmony

:09:42. > :09:46.with this track. Four pole positions. And the men directly

:09:46. > :09:50.behind him at is Kamui Kobayashi, the home favourite. You can't see

:09:50. > :09:54.him, but he will be dearly hoping that after a strong performance in

:09:54. > :09:58.qualifying, the race does not go the same way as the last time.

:09:58. > :10:03.made a bad start then and was a victim of the accident that

:10:03. > :10:07.happened behind him. This must be his time. He has driven well in

:10:07. > :10:17.qualifying, in front of a home crowd. He here we go. We are

:10:17. > :10:30.

:10:30. > :10:35.getting close now. Time to hear Her Sebastian, great qualifying lap

:10:35. > :10:40.yesterday. In scenes that You and Suzuka fit each other like a glove.

:10:40. > :10:44.Thanks for the complement! I think it is a very nice circuit. It is

:10:44. > :10:48.something special in the calendar. Going around here with a Formula

:10:48. > :10:51.One car does feel different to everywhere else. On top of that, if

:10:51. > :10:57.you have a great car and the chance to put it on pole, it is even

:10:57. > :11:01.better. Great day yesterday, but today is the race. For any concerns

:11:01. > :11:06.going into the race? Change of conditions? It is quite windy now.

:11:06. > :11:13.It has been quite windy all weekend. We had similar conditions on Friday

:11:13. > :11:16.afternoon. We will see. Mark Webber, it looks almost like a

:11:16. > :11:19.clear view ahead. Glance to the left, and you have your team-mate

:11:19. > :11:29.alongside you. How much of winning this race comes down to the first

:11:29. > :11:30.

:11:30. > :11:34.lap? It is important to get a good start. That is my plan. Then it is

:11:34. > :11:40.a long Grand Prix after that. We have a strategy. We have plenty of

:11:40. > :11:44.tyres. We have the tyre situation to look at. But let's not get ahead

:11:44. > :11:48.of ourselves. We will focus on the start.

:11:48. > :11:51.Last time you had such a great qualifying, it did not work out.

:11:51. > :12:01.Obviously, you will be hoping for something better in front of the

:12:01. > :12:06.home crowd at. This time, I hope to make it. You made a big impact on

:12:06. > :12:15.your debut here. Do you have your sides lined up on the hairpin in

:12:15. > :12:19.the first lap? For we are confident for the race. Hopefully, we will

:12:19. > :12:22.surprise here. Here we go. The man at the front

:12:22. > :12:26.knows that today, he can start to really close the gap on the

:12:26. > :12:30.championship leader. However, alongside him, he has got his team-

:12:30. > :12:36.mate who would love to pick up a victory here. And behind him, a man

:12:36. > :12:40.being cheered on by every person in the grandstands, the home favourite,

:12:40. > :12:50.canary Kobayashi. The Buddhists set for a special race. Let's see how

:12:50. > :13:06.

:13:06. > :13:10.propositions, Sebastian Vettel could match of the greatest number

:13:10. > :13:15.of victories this afternoon as well as becoming the first back-to-back

:13:15. > :13:21.winner of the season. They are away on the formation lap. The softer

:13:21. > :13:24.tyres are being used this weekend. Quite a big step change between the

:13:24. > :13:28.two different types of tyre available. There have been some

:13:28. > :13:33.issues with these tyres. Gary, you can tell us more about what to

:13:33. > :13:41.watch out for with those tyres during this race. Yes, the inside

:13:41. > :13:50.front shoulder of the track has been blistering a bit. It is a bit

:13:50. > :13:54.critical. There will be more grip. The rear tyres have also been

:13:54. > :13:59.blistering around the centre line. You have to try and stay within

:13:59. > :14:03.that problem. If it does start to blister, you have to let it cool

:14:03. > :14:08.down a bit. It will be down to drive a tactics in this race.

:14:08. > :14:18.many stops can we expect to see? would imagine two. Everybody will

:14:18. > :14:18.

:14:18. > :14:24.be heading for that. An early stop around lap 10. Most people will do

:14:24. > :14:29.two stops, unless that blistering really becomes a problem. So here,

:14:29. > :14:33.they are presumably even thinking about tyres at this stage? They

:14:33. > :14:37.will indeed. There are a number of procedures drivers have to go

:14:37. > :14:42.through. The pace is much slower than you would run a normal lap, so

:14:42. > :14:46.they try and break and accelerate and radiate the heat from the disc.

:14:46. > :14:54.The drivers also have to do a synchronisation of the gearshift

:14:54. > :14:58.are so that it presents the next gear that you want. But they have

:14:58. > :15:07.to do a synchronisation, so they need to accelerate or the way to

:15:07. > :15:11.seventh gear. You can see Jenson Button. He has an affinity with

:15:11. > :15:21.Japan, of course. Japanese girlfriend. Spends a lot of time

:15:21. > :15:22.

:15:22. > :15:27.out here. Sebastian Vettel also wearing a crash helmet dedicated to

:15:27. > :15:30.Japan this weekend. He always likes to use different cash -- crash

:15:30. > :15:34.helmet designs. Cancel the get something out of this race?

:15:34. > :15:39.Remember how both cars were up on the grid, and then when Kobayashi

:15:39. > :15:44.came to the line, it was all smoking and he got affected by the

:15:44. > :15:48.accident at the first corner. This time, Kobayashi is moving into

:15:48. > :15:58.place and there is no smoke coming off the cars. Behind him is Sergio

:15:58. > :16:06.

:16:06. > :16:10.It was his aggression that got everybody into trouble at spa, so

:16:10. > :16:14.Grosjean then had to serve a one- race ban. Of course he returned

:16:14. > :16:19.last time out in Singapore. He starts in fourth place for this

:16:19. > :16:26.Japanese Grand Prix. Keep an eye on Grosjean, Peres and Alonso, Alonso

:16:26. > :16:33.starting in sixth place or a bit further back. All set to go then.

:16:33. > :16:39.Away we go. Vettel lights it up and gets away. Kobayashi is ahead of

:16:39. > :16:44.Webber. Grow grow going side by side. Somebody's off already. Is

:16:44. > :16:48.that Alonso? They come through, we have got damage down there at the

:16:48. > :16:52.first corner. Rosberg as well and Webber's out at the first corner,

:16:52. > :16:56.Rosberg is out. Let's try and catch through who's come through there.

:16:56. > :17:01.Button's got through, Massa is through. Where is Alonso? I think

:17:01. > :17:06.he went off at the first corner. Raikkonen is there, Peres is there

:17:06. > :17:10.as well. Real drama immediately. Kobayashi is in second place and

:17:10. > :17:15.Button making a very good get-away. Hulkenberg is chasing down Lewis

:17:15. > :17:23.Hamilton by the way, they are fighting for seventh place.

:17:23. > :17:28.safety car is out. Neutralising this race. Ferrari, as we see,

:17:28. > :17:32.Rosberg getting out of his Mercedes. Fernando's luck seems to have run

:17:32. > :17:35.out. 29 points the gap between Vettel and Alonso before this race.

:17:35. > :17:40.If Vettel wins today, the gap could be down to four points. What a

:17:40. > :17:44.drama this is for the Championship leader. He was taken out of an

:17:44. > :17:49.accident at Spa, but let's wait to see what happened at the start of

:17:49. > :17:53.this race. You can see the left tyre, the rear is missing, whether

:17:53. > :17:59.that was as a result of contact or whether because he went wide, as

:17:59. > :18:03.you can see through turn one. It was difficult to see. Grosjean and

:18:03. > :18:06.Webber appear to be moving. Whatever it was that Webber got

:18:06. > :18:12.involved in, Health and Safety back on the track and possibly driving

:18:12. > :18:18.back to the pits. The cars behind the safety car and obviously going

:18:18. > :18:22.nice and slowly at the moment. Grosjean quite a long way down the

:18:22. > :18:26.field. He's down in 11th place. Maybe he got mixed up in all that.

:18:26. > :18:30.Is that a Williams with no front wing? It's Senna, right down at the

:18:30. > :18:34.back with no front wing, so a lot of cars there, separate incidents

:18:34. > :18:39.going on there in the first corner. The run on to the first bend is

:18:39. > :18:49.tricky on a downhill start, very fast. First part to turn one, then

:18:49. > :18:49.

:18:49. > :18:54.it tightens up on you, so how do you deal with that? Historically,,

:18:55. > :18:58.I mean you may remember the incident with Senna many years ago,

:18:58. > :19:03.you enter flat out turn one and it's turn two that you really break

:19:03. > :19:10.the car down for, so you try and get off the start line, you have

:19:10. > :19:20.cars running and we get this incident. As we wait to see ary

:19:20. > :19:24.play of what happened -- - a replay of what happened. Senna is out.

:19:24. > :19:28.They may use this opportunity to go on different tyres. Gary, are they

:19:28. > :19:33.putting different tyres on? Yes, they've got to chang their strategy

:19:33. > :19:43.and do something different -- change their strategy. Web SWEB

:19:43. > :19:43.

:19:43. > :19:49.going to go on to the hard tyre now -- Webber. It's going to be a tough

:19:49. > :19:55.race for Mark from here. Webber who qualified second - second car in by

:19:55. > :20:03.the way. It's not been a good day so far for Mark Webber. His team-

:20:03. > :20:11.mate leads this race. Then Kobayashi, Button. Massa started in

:20:11. > :20:20.tenth, Raikkonen fifth, Peres sixth, then Maldonado and Ricciardo.

:20:20. > :20:24.Ben fit there for Maldonado. -- big benefit. We seem Timo Glock as well

:20:24. > :20:32.in 11th. Difficult to imagine he'll stay there, Ben, but none less,

:20:32. > :20:37.that's cause for great hope in Marussia. 12th last time out.

:20:37. > :20:41.Trying to listen into the explanation there. It sounded to me

:20:42. > :20:45.like they were saying it's not taken a hard one which I exit to

:20:45. > :20:48.mean it wasn't a hard knock, there was just rubber on it, so a

:20:48. > :20:52.precautionary change to the front wing which Mark will struggle to

:20:52. > :20:57.catch the back of the pack before the safety car comes in, so that

:20:57. > :21:01.might prove costly. The race gets under way once again and Vettel has

:21:01. > :21:05.disappeared. Kobayashi's been caught napping there. Button all

:21:05. > :21:15.over the back as they came through chicane but Vettel demonstrated why

:21:15. > :21:18.

:21:18. > :21:24.he's double world champion. Battle behind. Peres is on the face grass

:21:24. > :21:29.on to the extra tarmac there! A lot mortar Macthan there used to be.

:21:29. > :21:38.had a go. In this case, Raikkonen held his ground and Pires had to

:21:38. > :21:48.take to the tarmac in the run-off there. Lost a couple of places.

:21:48. > :21:48.

:21:48. > :21:51.sees his team-mate, Kobayashi, running into second place. Rosberg

:21:51. > :21:55.popped out. Alonso is running absolutely fine at this point.

:21:55. > :21:59.There's some contact. He got a left rear puncture. The tyre was off in

:21:59. > :22:08.the gravel so it was contact with the Lotus and the run town the

:22:08. > :22:11.first corner. Now again, is that Grosjean? Kimi I think. So Kimi and

:22:11. > :22:15.Alonso coming together and then Alonso at this point incredibly

:22:15. > :22:19.lucky as he came across a pack. You can see the contact with Webber

:22:19. > :22:27.gets pushed. That was Rosberg on the inside of Webber which was why

:22:27. > :22:33.he had the incident. On board with Grosjean. Incorrectly he was

:22:33. > :22:38.crediting him with the contact. Then he goes and does it again!

:22:38. > :22:43.Romain, Romain, what are you doing?! So many first corner

:22:43. > :22:47.understand dents. He just rear ended the back end of Mark Webber.

:22:47. > :22:52.From on board, Alonso. It wasn't a brilliant get-away, and he has

:22:52. > :22:57.Raikkonen on his left. Indeed. He get the contact in the left rear

:22:57. > :23:01.tyre and at that point he hangs on to it, but in front of the pack and

:23:01. > :23:06.that tyre and then he stalls the engine. So he maybe could have got

:23:06. > :23:12.back to the pits if he kept the engine running. A replay of the

:23:12. > :23:16.Perez Raikkonen incident and Raikkonen saying, no way, Jose, you

:23:16. > :23:25.ain't coming over the side of me. We have seen lots already. No surp

:23:25. > :23:32.raise they'll be looking into incidents involving Webber and

:23:32. > :23:37.Grosjean. Vettel leads. What is going to happen for Grosjean this

:23:37. > :23:42.time? He was taken a one-race ban for causing that incident in Spa,

:23:42. > :23:48.he's now caused that incident with Webber so there'll be some nervous

:23:48. > :23:53.people down at the Lotus garage. Small piece missing, Kimi, it's not

:23:53. > :23:58.an important part, we are happy. Reassuring for Raikkonen. The

:23:58. > :24:02.leaders coming around to complete another lap. Vettel five laps

:24:02. > :24:06.completed. On to lap six. Gap to Kobayashi is three seconds. Button

:24:06. > :24:12.is one second behind Kobayashi. Behind him is Massa, then Raikkonen,

:24:12. > :24:22.Hamilton, looking at Hamilton now with Perez chasing him with

:24:22. > :24:23.

:24:23. > :24:31.Hulkenberg behind. The teams have data being beamed back to the

:24:31. > :24:41.gardge which will tep them the front tyre Thame -- back to the

:24:41. > :24:42.

:24:42. > :24:47.garage which will tell them the front tyre pressures. Also the tyre

:24:47. > :24:55.temperatures. Kobayashi is in 11th lace at the carer ham at the moment.

:24:55. > :25:00.Caterham last last time out. Has he completed this?! I think he has.

:25:00. > :25:03.Hamilton must have seen him coming and Perez has come through. Once a

:25:04. > :25:10.car's committed to that type of overtake, you have to be compliant

:25:10. > :25:18.as Hamilton tries to come back and the run-down to Spoon -- on the

:25:18. > :25:24.run-down to Spoon. He saw Perez coming there. Great stuff from

:25:24. > :25:33.Perez and lue-sm getting set in for a long afternoon -- Lewis Hamilton.

:25:33. > :25:38.The new McLaren driver for next year. Hulkenberg is not far behind.

:25:39. > :25:43.Bouncing over the kerbs. Lewis Hamilton wasn't happy with his car

:25:43. > :25:47.after qualifying. The different qualifying set-up. We are seeing

:25:47. > :25:52.that this is ten seconds stopping penalty for causing a penalty.

:25:52. > :25:58.He'll be coming to serve his penalty. Hamilton paying the price

:25:58. > :26:03.of a different set-up in qualifying. Struggled and still struggling

:26:03. > :26:08.today. Behind them, Maldonado's running in ninth position in the

:26:08. > :26:13.Williams, then Ricciardo and Rosso also running well as we take

:26:13. > :26:19.another look at this. Lewis Hamilton coming. -- Lewis Hamilton

:26:19. > :26:24.saw him coming. In tend, that was a good pass. Perez, brave, commit and

:26:24. > :26:28.it paid off. Vettel leads, the gap to second place. Kobayashi, the

:26:28. > :26:33.Japanese driver. Button followed by Massa and Raikkonen. No change

:26:33. > :26:43.there. Perez ahead of Hamilton with Hulkenberg chasing. It's very clear

:26:43. > :26:45.

:26:45. > :26:48.that Hamilton is still struggling somewhat. Maldonado. Ferrari have

:26:48. > :26:56.had that problem. Schumacher has moved up one more in 14th place now.

:26:56. > :27:00.So just outside the top ten, it's interesting. We have got Kovalainen,

:27:00. > :27:05.then Vergne, Schumacher, Glock has dropped to 15th. That confirms why

:27:05. > :27:10.in such a technology-driven sport, people off ask why do they have

:27:10. > :27:14.someone hanging a board over the pit wall. You lose the radio

:27:14. > :27:19.occasionally so it remains the only way often to contact your driver

:27:19. > :27:24.and invite him in to change some tyres some times is to hang out a

:27:24. > :27:34.plastic board with an arrow. This is the second, Thursday and fourth.

:27:34. > :27:42.

:27:42. > :27:46.Massa holding on in there well. radio that he has to make a pit

:27:46. > :27:50.stob. -- pit stop. Romain will be relieved. He knows

:27:51. > :27:54.that with the incidents Health and Safety had on the first lap of the

:27:54. > :27:57.Grand Prix, he's having been banned from one race going to feel, am I

:27:57. > :28:00.out with the stewards again. We see his car in the pits but he'll be

:28:00. > :28:05.thinking, OK, I'm getting my penalty now, so hopefully after the

:28:05. > :28:10.race that'll be it. A very good point. He'd much rather serve ten

:28:10. > :28:14.seconds here than miss the next race in Korea in a weeks' time.

:28:14. > :28:17.Away goes the Lotus of Grosjean. His team-mate, Raikkonen, with

:28:17. > :28:24.Perez catching. You can see the difference in times the over the

:28:24. > :28:28.last couple of laps on screen, meaning that Perez is catching the

:28:28. > :28:31.Lotus rapidly at the moment. We concentrate on Hamilton v

:28:32. > :28:36.Hulkenberg now. This is for seventh position and Hamilton definitely

:28:36. > :28:40.struggling at this point. Running about six tenths of a second slower

:28:40. > :28:50.than his team-mate, Button, which highlights the differences in the

:28:50. > :28:51.

:28:51. > :28:55.cars. Webber is on the harder compounds of tyre now, down in 21st

:28:55. > :28:59.place. We have lost Alonso and Rosberg from this race and that has

:28:59. > :29:01.the loss of Alonso in particular massive implications in terms of

:29:01. > :29:05.this year's World Championship. His big rival, Sebastian Vettel,

:29:06. > :29:11.closest rival at this point anyway, is leading the Japanese Grand Prix

:29:11. > :29:18.and looking to get a maximum points haul here. Hulkenberg still tucked

:29:18. > :29:25.in behind Lewis Hamilton. Seven, eight. Maldonado in ninth.

:29:25. > :29:33.Ricciardo and Rosso. Vergne, di Resta in 13th. Schumacher 14th,

:29:33. > :29:40.Glock glock, de la Rosa. Petrov who has been struggling, Webber who has

:29:40. > :29:44.been in for a pit stop. It's often difficult to explain to the public

:29:44. > :29:48.why we can see the brilliance of McLaren in Singapore, fantastic

:29:48. > :29:53.pole position, Lewis Hamilton leading the race, and in one race

:29:53. > :29:58.later, here he is being hunted down by a Force India, much smaller team

:29:58. > :30:03.and budget and it just shows that the tracks are living things. Just

:30:03. > :30:09.because your car works on one particular piece of tarmac in one

:30:09. > :30:17.country, take it somewhere else and it just doesn't want to go. No

:30:17. > :30:20.doubting Lewis Hamilton's talent. Listening to the radio message

:30:20. > :30:25.there, it was the fact that the radios are encrypted so the other

:30:25. > :30:29.teams can't listen but the FIA can give that feed to the breasters,

:30:29. > :30:33.but it almost sounds like he was getting emotional. His voice was

:30:33. > :30:37.like "it's not fair, I can't get close!". He was talking about

:30:37. > :30:41.dropping back on purpose to try and protect the tyres. He's saying

:30:41. > :30:46.whenever he gets close he's losing balance and again, it's like going

:30:46. > :30:50.through the clouds in an aircraft. You experience turbulence. That's

:30:50. > :30:54.what happened here, the dirty air which has been used to generate

:30:54. > :30:58.downforce on Lewis Hamilton's McClaren delivered to Hulkenberg in

:30:58. > :31:03.a very excited state and he just doesn't get the efficiency over his

:31:03. > :31:08.car. So he's quicker but he's not able to carry that momentum and do

:31:08. > :31:12.the pass, it's a very short one down the start and it's been

:31:12. > :31:18.shortened this year over last year for some reason of which I can't

:31:18. > :31:28.tell you. Maybe Gary has a word on that. But thauf got an even shorter

:31:28. > :31:41.

:31:41. > :31:47.-- they've got an even shorter this cars should go out. Top of a second

:31:47. > :31:53.faster because of the fuel difference. It is looking pretty

:31:53. > :31:57.good. Perez has done the fastest first section times, so they are

:31:57. > :32:06.hanging in pretty well. Let's take another look at the start. There

:32:06. > :32:16.was a slight edge between Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso. Just

:32:16. > :32:19.

:32:19. > :32:26.a tiny touch. Jimmy made contact. - - Kimi made contact. Watch the top

:32:26. > :32:29.left of the screen. Kimi goes onto the grass as likely, back on as a

:32:29. > :32:36.reaction and clips of the right front part of his swing on the left

:32:36. > :32:41.rear of Alonso, and pops the tyre of the side wall. You lose pressure

:32:41. > :32:45.and temperature, and then the Paris not seated as well on the wheel, so

:32:45. > :32:49.disappointing for Ferrari. But that is what happens across a Grand Prix

:32:49. > :32:57.season. You can't expect not to get involved in incidents and accidents.

:32:57. > :33:05.Looking at the Mark Webber replay, what happened here? Not too much

:33:05. > :33:12.resistance from Petrov. Straightforward move, but he is way

:33:12. > :33:16.back in 18th place. You were talking about an interesting rumour.

:33:16. > :33:19.Nico Hulkenberg has also been connected with Ferrari by some in

:33:19. > :33:25.terms of replacing Felipe Massa, but Ferrari are still not

:33:25. > :33:28.announcing what they are deciding to do. They are not, and at the

:33:28. > :33:32.risk of appearing nationalist, I prefer the rumour that Paul di

:33:33. > :33:39.Resta is going to Ferrari. But we will have to see. Ferrari are not

:33:39. > :33:42.under any rush to make a decision. They have said they want to

:33:42. > :33:49.concentrate on winning the championship, and then worry about

:33:49. > :33:55.who will join Fernando Alonso. briefly saw Kovalainen, still

:33:55. > :33:59.running in 11th place. Michael Schumacher was not far behind. That

:33:59. > :34:09.is an interesting group just outside the top ten. Let's listen

:34:09. > :34:15.

:34:15. > :34:19.up with Perez. What are you learning from the way that car is

:34:19. > :34:25.responding and how much throttle he is using? He seems a lot more fluid

:34:25. > :34:31.in his driving now. Unsurprisingly, he is burning off York as we are on

:34:31. > :34:38.lap 13. You are doing a great job with tyres. We are target plus five,

:34:38. > :34:42.apparently. We were listening to Perez earlier, and he was a little

:34:42. > :34:46.more hesitant then with his throttle action. So inevitably, as

:34:46. > :34:56.you burn more fuel, the car gets lighter and more responsive and you

:34:56. > :34:56.

:34:56. > :35:00.just learn what the feedback is you are getting from the car. You might

:35:00. > :35:05.be over-aggressive on your steering, your brakes and throttle to begin

:35:06. > :35:10.with, and you start to smooth that out. Any time soon, he will be

:35:10. > :35:16.attending a pass on Raikkonen for fifth place. Perez has closed this

:35:16. > :35:23.gap. Coming up towards the DRS zone, where the reduction in drag will

:35:23. > :35:29.help of. Jenson Button has come into the pits from third position.

:35:29. > :35:35.He was running behind Kamui Kobayashi. Lap 14 is just about

:35:35. > :35:40.perfect for a two stop race here. Blink and you miss it. Believe it

:35:40. > :35:48.or not, they just changed four wheels and tyres. The pit stops are

:35:48. > :35:52.incredibly quick now. Very impressive. Kenny has put the hard

:35:52. > :35:58.tyres on. He came out into traffic immediately, and McLaren were able

:35:58. > :36:02.to get Button out into a bit of clear air. So that pit stop did not

:36:02. > :36:11.work for Raikkonen. Perez will probably not have to do anything

:36:11. > :36:14.other than stay out and run a clean lap. Perez has gone fastest of all

:36:14. > :36:18.in the first sector, so he is responding to the fact that

:36:18. > :36:23.Raikkonen has had to pit. It will be a straightforward pass during

:36:23. > :36:32.the pit stops for Perez. He has found himself caught behind a Jean-

:36:32. > :36:41.Eric Vergne and Heikki Kovalainen. But of course, they will all have

:36:41. > :36:45.to cycle through these pit stops. Perez is on your pit stop window.

:36:45. > :36:55.You would think Perez will go deeper into this race. Let's watch

:36:55. > :36:57.

:36:57. > :37:03.Raikkonen here. This was where he spun in a qualifying yesterday. He

:37:03. > :37:09.is using fresher tyres, so a lot more pace, but the Toro Rosso has

:37:09. > :37:16.great speed. Kamui Kobayashi has come in from

:37:16. > :37:20.second place. We will keep an eye on Button, who will be out

:37:20. > :37:24.comfortably in front. You can see the McLaren as Kobayashi gets back

:37:24. > :37:30.on to speed once again. The Japanese driver stays in front.

:37:30. > :37:36.Good work by Sauber. Kimi Raikkonen is going for it down the inside in

:37:36. > :37:42.to turn one, and he is through. Jean-Eric Vergne could not compete.

:37:42. > :37:46.By the DRS gave him that speed across the start-finish line.

:37:46. > :37:53.will probably give him another 15 kilometres an hour plus, depending

:37:53. > :38:00.on how efficient the system is. He is getting right up behind the

:38:00. > :38:10.Lotus. That is Heikki Kovalainen. The such a difficult corner. It

:38:10. > :38:11.

:38:11. > :38:17.seems never-ending. It is up over a hill. Let's see if there will be a

:38:17. > :38:21.chance towards the hairpin. Career she has pulled off some great moves.

:38:21. > :38:31.You can see how much more grip at there was for Kimi Raikkonen, but

:38:31. > :38:42.

:38:42. > :38:47.he still couldn't take advantage of his way up through the field.

:38:47. > :38:56.is a battle of the fines, but Kovalainen knows if he tries to

:38:56. > :39:01.stop Kimi Raikkonen too much, he would end up losing time in his own

:39:01. > :39:05.race. He is running in a great position right now. Perez has done

:39:05. > :39:10.his stop, so we expect him to come out comfortably in front of

:39:10. > :39:20.Raikkonen. Is it going to be comfortable? No. In fact, he has

:39:20. > :39:22.

:39:22. > :39:26.lost time. The Sauber has lost time to Kimi Raikkonen. That was a bit

:39:26. > :39:31.of a shame for Perez, and a bit of a surprise. Michael Schumacher has

:39:31. > :39:41.not been into the pits yet either. He had started the race on the

:39:41. > :39:41.

:39:41. > :39:48.heart of the compound tyres. We are on board with Kobayashi here. He

:39:48. > :39:54.has already been into the pits. But his Daniel Ricciardo head of him it,

:39:54. > :39:58.in the other Toro Rosso. He is running in sixth place. This plays

:39:58. > :40:04.into the hands of Button, who is running behind probably a she. I

:40:04. > :40:08.will be interested to see if Perez either had a mistake on his in lap,

:40:08. > :40:12.because the maths don't add up. He was faster. When we stopped talking

:40:12. > :40:18.about him, he had gone purple, which means he was fastest on the

:40:18. > :40:22.racetrack, but he has clearly lost time. He was on the gearbox of

:40:22. > :40:29.Raikkonen, and he has dropped a couple of places. Great little

:40:29. > :40:35.battle shaping up here. Jenson Button is certainly closing up.

:40:36. > :40:40.Either way, Lewis Hamilton is now heading towards the pits. Another

:40:40. > :40:46.stop coming up for McLaren. Here comes Kamui Qureshi, try to get

:40:46. > :40:51.past Daniel Ricciardo. He can't get out of the slipstream. Daniel

:40:51. > :40:55.Ricciardo, doing everything right, keeping that Sauber behind him as

:40:55. > :40:59.Button continues to chase. It is important for Kobayashi to try and

:40:59. > :41:09.get past. He has got the support of the fans who are watching from the

:41:09. > :41:14.side. Senna comes in. But stop by Williams. Meanwhile, this is

:41:14. > :41:19.affecting Kobayashi's opportunity here. Button has been allowed to

:41:19. > :41:28.get right up behind the Sauber. Daniel Ricciardo Racing for

:41:28. > :41:34.position. He will have a go down the inside. Nice manoeuvre from

:41:34. > :41:38.Kobayashi. Just a little close on the exit. Jenson Button will be

:41:38. > :41:43.trying to get past. Gary, we have seen a lot of pit-stops over the

:41:43. > :41:50.last couple of laps. But the majority have gone out on the

:41:50. > :42:00.harder tyre, but Williams have made a different choice? Williams have

:42:00. > :42:07.

:42:07. > :42:16.gone for Maldonado on the soft and get past. The Red Bull of Sebastian

:42:16. > :42:21.Vettel has just been in the pits while this has been going on. Mata

:42:21. > :42:27.has also been into the pits. And the Ferrari rejoins in front of

:42:28. > :42:31.Kobayashi. So Mata has gained tremendously. Felipe Massa will

:42:31. > :42:40.effectively be in second place. They shows you how much Daniel

:42:40. > :42:45.Ricciardo's lack of pace cost Kobayashi and Button. That does not

:42:45. > :42:55.sound good. More gearbox woes, perhaps, for McLaren. Can we hear

:42:55. > :43:21.

:43:21. > :43:27.It certainly sounded OK. But it is not OK from a position in point of

:43:27. > :43:33.view, because he has lost out to Massa. What a time for Felipe Massa

:43:33. > :43:39.to be delivering, and the driver of his season so far. He has not had a

:43:39. > :43:49.podium in two years. Let's see what happened when Hamilton came in.

:43:49. > :43:59.

:43:59. > :44:06.Problem with the front right. They and then the car rejoins. As you

:44:06. > :44:10.were saying, we were talking about Felipe Massa's future. He had a

:44:10. > :44:18.disappointing qualifying yesterday, but he is benefiting from the

:44:18. > :44:21.incident on the first lap. You are still in the lead. That gives us an

:44:21. > :44:26.opportunity to run through the order after the first round of pit

:44:26. > :44:32.stops. Sebastian Vettel is indeed still in the lead, by 10 seconds.

:44:32. > :44:38.But a big change in second place, Felipe Massa. Kobayashi third,

:44:38. > :44:42.Button 4th. Kimi Raikkonen his fifth. Hamilton is sixth, and then

:44:42. > :44:51.you have got Sergio Perez in seventh place, so he is behind

:44:52. > :44:59.Hamilton once again. Hulkenberg is eight, Maldonado is ninth. Round

:44:59. > :45:05.the outside, Perez! He has lost it. This time, it's definitely didn't

:45:05. > :45:09.work. That will be terminal. You are not allowed to receive outside

:45:09. > :45:13.assistance. He has got the car still running, but they will not

:45:13. > :45:20.push him back on the track. It is frustrating when you know you have

:45:20. > :45:28.still got the engine, but you are beached in the gravel, and you are

:45:28. > :45:33.with an engine that cannot rejoin the race. It just carried too much

:45:33. > :45:39.momentum out into the dust and dirt. For maybe a bit of inexperience in

:45:39. > :45:45.this case. This is one of the older tracks, and there are a number of

:45:45. > :45:55.tracks with gravel. Maybe he didn't expect Hamilton to go defensive,

:45:55. > :46:04.

:46:04. > :46:07.which he is entitled to do. tyre. That car seems to be coming

:46:07. > :46:12.alive. We spoke with the McLaren engineers this morning and they

:46:12. > :46:15.felt comfortable that their car was working well on the prime tyre and

:46:16. > :46:20.it seems to be the case now that the Lotus is struggling a lutle.

:46:20. > :46:24.Hamilton getting into the position where he loves to be to go racing -

:46:24. > :46:33.- little. He loves to be out front racing and leading. He's a great

:46:33. > :46:37.race driver, so this will give him an opportunity to show these skills.

:46:38. > :46:41.Perez' car is being craned out of the way. Both of them back off

:46:41. > :46:47.through there. They two past the green light now and it's race on

:46:47. > :46:50.for the rest of the lap. Massa's just set fastest lap of the race as

:46:50. > :46:57.he chases Vettel. We have already heard that Vettel is being askeded

:46:57. > :47:03.to manage his tyres. You've get to think that Vettel's in control here.

:47:03. > :47:11.You could see Vettel as he entered Spoon corner. He went through the

:47:11. > :47:14.kerb, not the ideal place. He open up the gap slightly. Lewis still

:47:14. > :47:20.struggling with the front of this car getting it into position. The

:47:20. > :47:26.corners turn in a long way ahead of the apex of the turn. Vettel has a

:47:26. > :47:31.very comfortable advantage. There he is, 9.5 seconds. Again, Massa

:47:31. > :47:35.was slightly quicker on the last lap by about two tenths of a second.

:47:35. > :47:40.Apparently, Perez has come on to the radio to the team and just said

:47:40. > :47:45.sorry, so he's admitted that it was his mistake. He just seemed to get

:47:45. > :47:47.a bit caught out, David. It's about experience. Ferrari said they

:47:47. > :47:53.weren't interested in Perez because they didn't feel he was experienced

:47:53. > :47:57.enough, but he is going to be in McClaren next year so better not

:47:57. > :48:02.make too many mistakes -- McLaren. It's the most difficult word isn't

:48:02. > :48:08.it, or is it the hardest word, can't quite remember the lir licks,

:48:08. > :48:18.but sometimes you have to hold your hands up and say, my fault --

:48:18. > :48:22.

:48:22. > :48:27.lyrics. TEAM RADIO: (Inaudible)

:48:27. > :48:31.Doesn't sound happy does he? mentioned gears again. There is an

:48:31. > :48:39.intermittent issue with the gear box. Oversteer in the last part of

:48:39. > :48:44.Spoon there, so unetling Jenson's concentration. Rosberg, we talked

:48:44. > :48:48.about him being out of this race. He's talking to Nico.

:48:48. > :48:54.Sorry to talk to you after the race is still going on, what happened?

:48:55. > :48:59.It's horrible to go out on the first corner, I had a good start

:48:59. > :49:04.but I spun round Webber and he was sideways and cause ago traffic jam

:49:04. > :49:10.because no-one knew where to two. Rosso didn't see me and destroyed

:49:10. > :49:17.the back tyre. Is a ten second penalty enough for Grosjean or is

:49:17. > :49:22.repeating the offence too much? don't know.

:49:22. > :49:26.Rosberg thought he was hit by Rosso but the stewards decided it was

:49:26. > :49:29.Senna because he's got the penalty. Difficult to see what is going on

:49:29. > :49:33.behind you when you are driving but the stewards have all the

:49:33. > :49:37.information there available. Disappointing end to what's been a

:49:37. > :49:43.disappointing weekend all round former say Indonesia. Some light at

:49:43. > :49:49.the end of the tunnel. Schumacher running in 129 place, after 23rd

:49:49. > :49:53.place. Senna is serving his penalty now. Third time he's been in the

:49:53. > :49:56.pits. He had to have the front wing changed. That was fairly good

:49:56. > :50:00.evidence that he ran into somebody because they had the replace the

:50:00. > :50:07.wing. Pit lane time that on the limiter of course would have cost

:50:07. > :50:17.him about 16 seconds in total track time. Never a nice one to do. Grow

:50:17. > :50:17.

:50:17. > :50:23.grow had a much harsher penalty. Added ten seconds. TEAM RADIO:

:50:24. > :50:27.Front tyres have gone off. When we were looking at how this race would

:50:27. > :50:30.play out, Gary, there was concern about tyres? Yes. On the inside

:50:31. > :50:35.shoulder, it's very hard around here. Because you are generating

:50:35. > :50:39.all that heat on the inside shoulder, the tyre was blustering.

:50:39. > :50:44.Surprised that he noticed the front tyres because normally the tyres

:50:45. > :50:51.grain a little bit. Not sure about that comment yet. He doesn't have

:50:51. > :50:56.the front grip he wants. He's not been out there since his pit stop.

:50:56. > :51:01.The tone of his voice was quite clearly disappointment. Resigning

:51:01. > :51:05.himself to the fact that the issues he's got with car balance, lack of

:51:05. > :51:10.front grip and qualifying. Now he finds himself in the same situation.

:51:10. > :51:18.He was on the back of Raikkonen's geer box. The Hunter is now

:51:18. > :51:24.becoming the hunted as he has Hulkenberg chasing him. TEAM RADIO:

:51:24. > :51:33.Another 15 laps. Another 15 laps required for Massa. That would take

:51:33. > :51:36.him up to 37, 38, before the final set of tyres. Bianchi, the reserve

:51:36. > :51:40.driver for Force India. Tested also for Ferrari. Might be in the mix

:51:40. > :51:44.for next year I guess. Hulkenberg not able to get any closer to

:51:44. > :51:49.Hamilton over the next couple of laps. He can get win half a second,

:51:49. > :51:55.but just cannot then make a move from there.

:51:55. > :51:58.Down the main straight he comes trying to pick up the DRS. Past the

:51:58. > :52:03.packed grand stands. The Japanese support for Formula One is

:52:03. > :52:08.tremendous. The way they queue to try and get a glimpse of their

:52:08. > :52:13.heroes. TEAM RADIO: Plan B and it's target minus one.

:52:13. > :52:21.Jenson Button on Plan B. He's in fourth and has Kobayashi and Massa

:52:21. > :52:26.ahead. Interesting that he hasn't been able to go. Interesting that

:52:26. > :52:31.you call it plan AA because Plan B never serves as a benefit, never

:52:31. > :52:41.sounds lake it's an upgrade over your initial A plan. A* perhaps

:52:41. > :52:44.

:52:44. > :52:48.next time out! Yes. Waiting for Webber to come in. Webber still to

:52:48. > :52:56.make his second slot because he was out of see Jens. Schumacher still

:52:56. > :53:05.in 12th place. Vergne is 13th. Kovalainen is in 14th position. As

:53:05. > :53:09.we are looking on board the Toro Rosso here of Vergne I think it is.

:53:09. > :53:15.It's Ricciardo. Yes, coming up behind Webb ever. Ninth and tenth

:53:16. > :53:22.at the moment. Webber's done a few good laps. I wonder if he has to

:53:22. > :53:27.come in this lap. He's been caught by Toro Rosso. It's all about where

:53:27. > :53:32.the window will be, if he comes in where will he drop out if in

:53:32. > :53:37.traffic. He's running slower now than the optimal place. It's --

:53:37. > :53:42.pace. It's a question of optimal damage now. Big slide there. He's

:53:42. > :53:45.got to be coming in, surely. Yes, he is. Abs hautely no grip on the

:53:45. > :53:52.rear tyres -- absolutely. Gary, Health and Safety coming to you in

:53:52. > :53:57.the pit lane, do you think he's on plan A or B or Z by now?! They're

:53:57. > :54:02.all out here now, just watch this pit stop. Comes in, quite

:54:02. > :54:07.comfortable stopping in the right place. No problem whatsoever and

:54:07. > :54:12.gone. Might not be 2.5 seconds, but it's neat and tidy.

:54:12. > :54:16.Schumacher's managed to make a move on di Resta at turn one and two.

:54:16. > :54:20.Tried to hold on as long as he could but in the end he was out

:54:20. > :54:27.wide on the dust and allowed makele to slot in at turn two. That pass

:54:27. > :54:31.started from the DRS into the apex of turn one. Good recovery from

:54:31. > :54:36.different qualifying for Schumacher. Here you see he's got DRS. Doesn't

:54:36. > :54:40.quite manage to get it to stick through turn one but forces di

:54:40. > :54:45.Resta a little wide. He's a car width wider than he'd like to be

:54:45. > :54:48.and that means when he goes to turn in, he doesn't have the grip

:54:48. > :54:51.available. The racing instincts of Schumacher, he might be six races,

:54:51. > :54:57.five more after this, away from retirement, but he's still mixing

:54:57. > :55:01.it with the kids. He's up to 11th place now. Started in 23rd position

:55:01. > :55:06.as a result of the ten place penalty he had from Singapore when

:55:06. > :55:11.he crashed into the back of Vergne. There is Vettel now. His advantage

:55:11. > :55:16.is being fairly even -- has been Sarahly even. 10.6 seconds over

:55:16. > :55:21.Massa. The scrum is around Perez as he explains what happened when he

:55:21. > :55:26.went off. But we gathered from what he said on the radio that he was

:55:26. > :55:32.admitting his own mistake. One Sauber out, the other still in it

:55:32. > :55:38.this third position. Let's just listen. TEAM RADIO: Pace is good,

:55:38. > :55:45.Kobayashi for the taking. That's what they need to try to do, get

:55:45. > :55:49.past Kobayashi. The gap has come down a second or so between

:55:49. > :55:53.Kobayashi and Button. The gap fairly consistent. You can see that

:55:53. > :55:56.it's been just over ten seconds for several laps now. A very

:55:56. > :56:01.comfortable lead there for Vettel. He'll have theen gin turned down at

:56:01. > :56:04.this stage just to save a little bit of fuel and just save some

:56:04. > :56:14.valuable laps on that engine if it's necessary later in the Grand

:56:14. > :56:15.

:56:15. > :56:21.Prix. Let's hear now from Perez. Sergio, such a shame, tell us what

:56:21. > :56:25.happened? I was going to overtake him again there. It was late, there

:56:25. > :56:30.was no time for me to go to the side, so when I went to the outside,

:56:30. > :56:33.I got to the ridge and spun. There was nothing I could do. I went into

:56:33. > :56:36.the gravel. How was your race going? Kimi ran you wide, lots of

:56:36. > :56:40.excitement going on on track. Do you think you would have finished

:56:40. > :56:47.in a good position? Who knows. I think today was a very good

:56:47. > :56:51.position. I could have given my team a -- I couldn't give my team a

:56:51. > :56:55.good position. It's my mistake and that's it. Perez out but his team-

:56:55. > :57:01.mate Kobayashi is in. But Kobayashi is coming under pressure from

:57:01. > :57:05.Button now. Button's been closing the gap. It's down to 2.7 seconds

:57:05. > :57:09.now between Kobayashi in third and Button in fourth. Vettel though

:57:09. > :57:13.comfortably leading. He has the gap up to over 11 seconds. The Red Bull

:57:13. > :57:17.looks totally in control of this race. We are over half distance in

:57:17. > :57:21.what is a much quicker race than the Singapore event which went to

:57:21. > :57:25.the full two hours. No way this race is going to go the two hours.

:57:25. > :57:30.Just listening on board as he came out of the hairpin, short shifting

:57:30. > :57:33.unto second gear just to protect the tyres. No need to use all of

:57:33. > :57:39.the RPM. So comfortably controlling this race out front.

:57:39. > :57:49.Yes, got some traffic to deal with, but that shouldn't be too much of a

:57:49. > :57:54.problem for him. He's got Petrov I think in the Caterham. The other

:57:54. > :57:58.Caterham was just outside the top ten. In 15th position now behind

:57:58. > :58:04.Bruno Senna and Vergne. There's Kobayashi, there is Button. It was

:58:04. > :58:07.2.7 seconds, the gap, the last time they came across the finish line.

:58:07. > :58:11.Let's monitor that and see if he's managed to close it in any more.

:58:11. > :58:16.The sector indicators showing that that gap is constantly changing and

:58:16. > :58:20.around the 2.5 second mark as he tries to get closer to the Sauber.

:58:20. > :58:25.Just looking at the first two sectors, looks as though he's only

:58:25. > :58:29.taken a couple of tenths out. The rate at which he's catching

:58:29. > :58:33.Kobayashi is decreasing which could be a number of things, could be

:58:33. > :58:38.Kobayashi responding to the wake-up call. He could of course have

:58:38. > :58:41.turned his engine into another engine mode which will give it more

:58:41. > :58:44.power and before you use a little more fuel. What an opportunity this

:58:44. > :58:49.is for Kobayashi. We are into the second half of the race. He's

:58:49. > :58:52.running in third place. A podium finish for Kobayashi wouldn't only

:58:52. > :58:56.be his best ever result in Formula One, it would be only the Thursday

:58:56. > :59:00.time that a Japanese driver has finished on the podium. It has

:59:00. > :59:06.happened here at Suzuka in the past, but Jenson, you wouldn't want

:59:06. > :59:11.Jenson closing don on you in that position. Jenson won here last year,

:59:11. > :59:15.he loves this Suzuka circuit. just taken another three tenths of

:59:15. > :59:19.a second. Within the next few laps, he's going to be under the gear box

:59:19. > :59:22.of the Sauber. They are getting ready for him. So Kobayashi

:59:22. > :59:26.presumably, yes, straight into the pits from third place. Crucial stop

:59:26. > :59:31.then for the Sauber team. Remember how fast McLaren have already been

:59:31. > :59:36.today in the pits. It could be that their guys around the wheels could

:59:36. > :59:41.win or lose this third place for Kobayashi and for button. Oh, the

:59:41. > :59:45.front jack man only just got out of the way in time. You would say that

:59:45. > :59:48.was perfection. He was just pulling the front jack away from the front

:59:48. > :59:53.wing as he was released and Hamilton has been in for another

:59:53. > :00:03.set of the prime tyres as well. Interesting I think, Kobayashi went

:00:03. > :00:05.

:00:05. > :00:07.with the prime once more. Look at this! Hamilton and Raikkonen almost

:00:08. > :00:12.coming together. It was absolutely side by side and Hamilton's managed

:00:12. > :00:17.to get in front of Kimi who stopped a lap before. Remember, Hamilton

:00:17. > :00:21.was running behind rake ruck -- Raikkonen and now thanks to a good

:00:21. > :00:24.pit stop, he's managed to get in front. Great reaction from the

:00:24. > :00:28.McLaren crew. They've brought Hamilton in, just that one lap

:00:28. > :00:34.later and they've played their ace card. You will see Hamilton gets

:00:34. > :00:40.released out on to the street and brave stuff from the combined world

:00:40. > :00:44.champions and in the end, Raikkonen goes OK, I give in.

:00:44. > :00:50.Pretty sensible in these situations. That's why he's finished every lap

:00:50. > :00:53.so far this year. Almost as if Hamilton went "boo" as he went

:00:53. > :01:00.alongside him because he swerved so much to get out of the way. Flat

:01:00. > :01:10.out into the first corner. This is an example of great racing.

:01:10. > :01:36.

:01:36. > :01:42.Vettel and Massa on this lap. Button and Kobayashi have both been

:01:42. > :01:52.into the pits. Button is now way ahead of Kobayashi. So Kobayashi,

:01:52. > :01:55.through all of that pit stop, still has to make his second pit stop. We

:01:55. > :02:00.will have to wait and see when Jenson Button comes in, whether he

:02:00. > :02:07.will be able to hold on to that third place or not. There is Felipe

:02:07. > :02:13.Massa, doing a decent job at the moment. Solid job. You wonder what

:02:13. > :02:19.Alonso would have been able to do. We are sticking to plan B. We are

:02:19. > :02:25.now looking at target plus two. Looks as though they are going a

:02:25. > :02:32.little deeper into the race. They will use these laps now to try and

:02:32. > :02:37.jump past Kobayashi. For a bit of traffic to deal with. There are

:02:37. > :02:41.some lovely slo-mo replays of cars jumping over curves. Gary, what are

:02:41. > :02:47.your thoughts on Button going deeper? Will he be able to jump

:02:47. > :02:52.Kobayashi when he makes his pit stop? We were talking earlier about

:02:52. > :03:01.strategy A and strategy B. Strategy A of would be the heart tyre, the

:03:01. > :03:08.soft tyre and then this of tyre again. But plan B would be soft,

:03:08. > :03:12.hard, hard. I would not be surprised to see them put on the

:03:13. > :03:18.soft tyre. A meanwhile, Kobayashi knows he is under pressure and he

:03:18. > :03:22.is going very quickly. He has just set a very good first sector time,

:03:22. > :03:26.faster than anyone else in the first sector. Not the fastest lap

:03:26. > :03:30.in the race. That still belongs to Sebastian Vettel. The Japanese

:03:30. > :03:36.driver will not give up his third place without a huge fight, and he

:03:36. > :03:42.has the support of thousands of fans at Suzuka to help him do it.

:03:42. > :03:48.We are hearing on our radios that Kimi has been told to save some of

:03:48. > :03:58.his KERS. Presumably, that is to allow him to have another go at

:03:58. > :04:00.

:04:00. > :04:10.Hamilton. This is the battle between Di Resta, Kovalainen and

:04:10. > :04:16.

:04:16. > :04:24.Grosjean. Grosjean has had a very incident-packed race already.

:04:24. > :04:33.Maldonado, by the way, has been back in the pits. Karthikeyan is

:04:33. > :04:39.out of the race now. Perez out at this corner, when he made a mistake

:04:39. > :04:45.trying to make a move on Lewis Hamilton. Otherwise, it is just

:04:45. > :04:55.Karthikeyan who is out of the race. Charles Pic is still running. So we

:04:55. > :04:55.

:04:55. > :04:59.have not lost too many, despite various incidents at the start. Can

:04:59. > :05:09.Grosjean do anything here? Looks like he is struggling with the

:05:09. > :05:13.

:05:13. > :05:21.front tyre. You can see he had to lift there. Grosjean is being

:05:21. > :05:29.pretty careful on his approach. This is the Maldonado stop. Senna,

:05:29. > :05:33.excuse me. Of course, he had a bad drive through penalty. Coming back

:05:33. > :05:39.to Grosjean, he is being quite timid in his approach to passing

:05:39. > :05:44.the Caterham. You wonder where he is in his head and right now. He

:05:44. > :05:53.has been involved in a lot of incidents. Sometimes you have to

:05:53. > :05:56.say you can't be that unlucky. we go, the battle for third is on.

:05:56. > :06:01.Jenson Button is coming in this time, and Kobayashi is trying to go

:06:01. > :06:05.as fast as possible to defend his third place. We know how fast

:06:05. > :06:09.McLaren can be on their pit stops. They had a horrible time with pit

:06:09. > :06:15.stops in the early part of the year, but more recently, they have been

:06:15. > :06:24.the pace-setters. Kobayashi makes the run down. It is a bit slow!

:06:24. > :06:28.They just had a bit of a hiccup. That might not be enough. You have

:06:28. > :06:33.got to say well done to Kamui Kobayashi. Some quick laps have

:06:33. > :06:37.enabled him to stay in front of the McLaren. Quite a big gap in the end.

:06:37. > :06:42.The even with that hiccup, I don't think he had enough to clear

:06:42. > :06:46.Kobayashi. Before Jenson poured into his pit box, we had Kobayashi

:06:46. > :06:52.in front of our commentary box, which is row five or six on the

:06:52. > :07:02.grid. Good work from the Sauber boys. Let's watch this replay of

:07:02. > :07:03.

:07:03. > :07:07.the stop. There was an issue with the right rear gun. You are right,

:07:07. > :07:11.Kobayashi had done enough. Even if they pulled off one of them

:07:11. > :07:15.magically quick stops, like the two and a half second one earlier,

:07:15. > :07:19.Kobayashi would still have held on to third. But can he continue to do

:07:19. > :07:23.so for the remainder of the race? We still have some time to go. It

:07:23. > :07:30.depends on the behaviour of those cars on the set of tyres they have

:07:30. > :07:35.chosen. Meanwhile, Hamilton is going quickly. He has just set a

:07:35. > :07:40.fastest lap. He is now running in fifth place. This is a good

:07:40. > :07:47.recovery for him, bearing in mind that he started in ninth place. In

:07:47. > :07:51.comes Felipe Massa for his final stop, from second place. We had

:07:51. > :07:58.earlier that they wanted him to get to lap 37, and that is exactly what

:07:59. > :08:03.he has managed to do. Kobayashi was just in the back of the shot, so he

:08:03. > :08:07.has managed to get in front of the Sauber, but it looks as if

:08:07. > :08:17.Kobayashi has won a bit of time. The fans showed their appreciation

:08:17. > :08:18.

:08:18. > :08:26.of something. Grosjean took a while to get past the Caterham. That was

:08:26. > :08:31.for 14th place. Kimi Raikkonen is running in sixth place. Michael

:08:31. > :08:36.Schumacher has just come into the pits and is on his way again. Mata

:08:36. > :08:42.has a bit of traffic ahead of him. That is Pedro de la Rosa.

:08:42. > :08:45.Schumacher is going on to the soft tyres. Different strategy chosen by

:08:45. > :08:51.him. Gary, do you think about softer tyre on the Mercedes will

:08:51. > :08:56.work for him? He is doing something different. He has 16 laps to do,

:08:56. > :09:03.and he wants to try something different. It should be quicker. I

:09:03. > :09:07.am surprised button did not do that. Sebastian Vettel is in with a

:09:07. > :09:14.comfortable advantage over Felipe Massa. As long as that goes

:09:14. > :09:21.smoothly, he should be safe. Massa is not even at the chicane yet.

:09:21. > :09:27.That is the margin of advantage that Sebastian Vettel enjoys. It is

:09:27. > :09:31.a huge lead, absolutely dominant so far in this race from pole position.

:09:31. > :09:35.Derek, we had seen Sebastian Vettel in a dominant position before, and

:09:35. > :09:41.it went all wrong because he had an alternator failure. Is that

:09:41. > :09:51.something to worry about? We should not worry about it, but a few

:09:51. > :09:56.

:09:56. > :10:02.people will be worried about it. They have gone back to the old

:10:02. > :10:07.specification which failed in Valencia. Today has certainly seen

:10:07. > :10:11.its fair share of dramas, and one of the biggest was that we lost the

:10:11. > :10:15.championship leader Fernando Alonso at the start of this race. He is

:10:15. > :10:22.talking to Lee McKenzie. Bad luck. Tell us what happened at

:10:22. > :10:27.the start? Kimi touched me a bit on the rear. I had a puncture, so I

:10:27. > :10:32.could not continue. It was a shame, because when you cannot be even the

:10:32. > :10:36.first corner, it is always sad. But that is the way it is. I need to

:10:36. > :10:42.concentrate for next week. retirements, and neither has been

:10:42. > :10:52.your fault. That must be difficult. Yeah, we need to keep working well

:10:52. > :10:53.

:10:53. > :11:01.and not doing mistakes. There is nothing we can do. We are leaders

:11:01. > :11:06.of the championship. We need to avoid mistakes. Meanwhile, Bruno

:11:06. > :11:10.Senna is having a go at getting past Grosjean, but he did not get

:11:10. > :11:17.caught out by Grosjean being fair, but hard in his defence. Unlike

:11:18. > :11:22.Sergio Perez earlier, when he tried to get past Hamilton. There was

:11:22. > :11:32.nothing Lewis did that you would not have expected. He knew he was a

:11:32. > :11:36.

:11:36. > :11:40.bit vulnerable down the inside. He is in a quicker car-tyre

:11:40. > :11:50.combination now than Grosjean, so he will eventually get there, but

:11:50. > :11:51.

:11:51. > :11:55.Grosjean is making him work for it. I think Perez was just caught out

:11:55. > :12:05.by an experienced driver prison in his car well to defend the

:12:05. > :12:07.

:12:07. > :12:15.racetrack. Closing on sector one. Kobayashi just been told that

:12:15. > :12:20.Button is quicker than him. Button is setting the fastest its first

:12:20. > :12:24.sector of anyone. You definitely don't want to be caught, but if you

:12:24. > :12:28.are going to be slower anywhere, sector one is the place to be

:12:28. > :12:37.slower, because there is nowhere to be overtaken in that first sector.

:12:37. > :12:46.The first opportunity to passes down into the hairpin, turn 11.

:12:46. > :12:52.Senna is closer than he has been. This could be awkward. Oh, goes

:12:52. > :12:56.round the outside! Brae stuff for Bruno Senna. That could have been

:12:56. > :13:02.an uncomfortable moment. Grosjean has had several of those in his

:13:02. > :13:05.short career. That is one of the fastest corners on the racetrack.

:13:05. > :13:13.Not quite like Alonso when he did it on Michael Schumacher a few

:13:13. > :13:18.years ago, but it is still brave to do this. Grosjean takes his choice,

:13:18. > :13:23.goes to the left. Senna leaves a space just to be safe as he runs

:13:23. > :13:29.through, but the pass was complete. Sebastian Vettel has got this

:13:30. > :13:34.comfortably under control at the moment. Ballack was half a second

:13:35. > :13:41.faster than Kobayashi. Come on, mate, there is a podium here.

:13:41. > :13:46.is an opportunity here for Jenson Button. Petrov ran wide in the

:13:46. > :13:54.Caterham, but he got it back together. That was the fast corner

:13:55. > :14:01.we have been talking about. Gobby ashy still holding on to third, but

:14:01. > :14:11.Button is catching. Hulkenberg in seventh place, then Maldonado in

:14:11. > :14:13.

:14:13. > :14:17.eight. Webber in 9th at an Daniel Ricciardo in tenth place. The young

:14:17. > :14:22.Australian, who sadly missed out on tenth place in Singapore in the

:14:22. > :14:27.final lap, could end up losing tent to Schumacher in the closing stages

:14:27. > :14:35.of this race as well. But the fastest lap still belongs to

:14:35. > :14:40.Sebastian Vettel on that 1:36.6 he did a few laps ago. Jenson Button

:14:40. > :14:45.is bearing down on Kamui Kobayashi. This is the biggest race of

:14:45. > :14:52.Kobayashi's career. He is on for a podium finish on home turf, but he

:14:52. > :14:56.is being chased by a world champion and the guy who won here last year.

:14:56. > :15:02.Jenson said himself this weekend that it is a long shot for him to

:15:02. > :15:08.be in the hunt. Hamilton is in a better position. You wonder, if

:15:08. > :15:12.McLaren were playing purely for the driver's championship, you can

:15:12. > :15:18.almost imagine that they should give d'instruction. We hope they

:15:19. > :15:21.don't. We want to see good wheel- to-wheel action. But that is one of

:15:21. > :15:26.the difficulties that the management of any team has when you

:15:26. > :15:30.have two number-one drivers. Do you let them race, based on the way the

:15:30. > :15:40.weekend has played out, or do you make a decision on which would be

:15:40. > :15:50.

:15:50. > :15:55.the best for the run to the there. They'll let Button chase

:15:55. > :16:00.down Kobayashi first. But that might change on the nebgts lap.

:16:00. > :16:05.Button is that much closer still as they continue around on this lap --

:16:05. > :16:14.next lap. As we have seen, Kovalainen just getting out of the

:16:14. > :16:19.way, by the way. Button adjusting his visor there. His hand was up

:16:19. > :16:23.within he was going along Dunlop Curve. Normally if you were taking

:16:23. > :16:25.off the plastic on front of your visor, it would be a

:16:25. > :16:31.straightforward action. That's twice within the space of a few

:16:31. > :16:41.corners. His hand's up at his helmet, so is there another issue

:16:41. > :16:46.there? Vettel set a new fast sector on this. Raid raid exhaust tip too

:16:46. > :16:54.hoo -- too high. Adjustments being made for Webber to try to protect

:16:54. > :16:58.what is a naunth place at the moment. -- ninth place at the

:16:58. > :17:03.moment. Gary would be better qualified to

:17:03. > :17:06.understand how it works. It puts extra temperatures into the

:17:07. > :17:12.exhausts and the driver can play with that during the Grand Prix.

:17:12. > :17:17.Mark's getting instructions. You are just going to have to put

:17:18. > :17:22.probably a bit more or less in to bring the exhaust temperatures down.

:17:22. > :17:26.Webber holding on to ninth. He was involved in the first corner

:17:26. > :17:32.incident. He got hit basically, that's why he was involved. He was

:17:32. > :17:40.hit by Grosjean. Nothing Webber could do about that. Webber has

:17:40. > :17:48.been penalised and is in 15th. Don't worry about saving tyres any

:17:48. > :17:52.more because we are running out of laps. A clear message that the

:17:52. > :18:02.McLaren team are putting everything into the podium result, unsurp

:18:02. > :18:06.raising. -- unsurprising. If that is everything he's got, is it going

:18:06. > :18:11.to be enough? The Sauber has been so good on its tyres throughout the

:18:11. > :18:17.year. Generally, it's been Perez who'll be joining Button next year

:18:17. > :18:22.who has shown that and as ended up with three podium finishes.

:18:22. > :18:28.Kobayashi, despite being near him, he's only had a fourth place,

:18:28. > :18:38.that's been his best lult of the soon so far but no podium fun Nishs

:18:38. > :18:39.

:18:39. > :18:46.-- result of that. It's still to be played out of this race. Across the

:18:46. > :18:51.line they go and the gap up to 1.8 seconds. It does lack as though

:18:51. > :18:55.maybe there isn't a huge amount that Jenson Button can do here. Is

:18:55. > :18:59.that podium going to be just out of reach? Hamilton still running in

:18:59. > :19:03.fifth place. Raikkonen is sixth. Hulkenberg seventh. Quick point

:19:03. > :19:07.about Rosberg by the way going out of this race earlier on that, is

:19:07. > :19:12.his first non-finish of the whole year, so sad that his record of

:19:12. > :19:15.managing to get to the end of every race, in fact every lap of every

:19:15. > :19:20.race even, he's always on the lead lap, which leaves Raikkonen as the

:19:20. > :19:30.only one like that. This is the battle for tenth. Schumacher trying

:19:30. > :19:41.

:19:41. > :19:47.to get past Ricciardo. Will he cut behind in this first sector. Look

:19:47. > :19:50.at this climb up through Dunlop. TEAM RADIO: Pushing hard. They are

:19:50. > :19:54.nowhere near OK,. Keep looking after the car, don't worry about

:19:54. > :19:57.the fastest lap which he's got at the moment, so it looks like

:19:57. > :20:01.Sebastian Vettel could be on for the hat trick, as they term it

:20:02. > :20:08.sometimes, the poll, the win and the fastest lap. But Schumacher

:20:08. > :20:13.getting very close to the back of Daniel Ricciardo now. That final

:20:13. > :20:17.point on offer here. Vettel still able to lock a wheel if necessary.

:20:17. > :20:21.The car will be changing constantly during the race, no need for him to

:20:22. > :20:27.be exploring the limits with the lead, but try telling a racing

:20:27. > :20:33.driver not to race and you can see just a little lock up avoiding the

:20:33. > :20:36.kerb on the inside. Adrian looking reasonably calm but I guess inside

:20:36. > :20:42.the nerves, butterflies and uncertainty as to whether the

:20:42. > :20:48.reliability will hold. The gap still 1.8 seconds between Kobayashi.

:20:48. > :20:53.There he is. Stabilised over the last couple of laps. Five laps to

:20:53. > :20:57.go in this race, Button may not have quite what he needs. If that

:20:57. > :21:00.is the case, McLaren might swap them. Let's go back with Schumacher

:21:00. > :21:05.again. Struggling a bit more straight line

:21:05. > :21:10.speed. Was he hitting the limiter? Sounded like he was. Just buzzing

:21:10. > :21:14.into the limiter slightly. That is a compromise you have to make when

:21:14. > :21:18.you choose your gears on the Friday night. The other thing being the

:21:18. > :21:24.tail wind. It's a little higher, so of course less wind resistance

:21:24. > :21:31.manes you get a slaigtly higher top speed. That's affecting the use of

:21:32. > :21:39.the DRS -- slightly. The for report Rosso able to pull out the gap on

:21:39. > :21:44.that first sector. Turn 11 is the scene of lots of

:21:44. > :21:48.opportunities on this track. Concertina effect. What a great

:21:48. > :21:54.story this would be for both of the drivers. Michael coming from 23rd

:21:54. > :21:59.on the grid or for Ricciardo, big, big result for Toro Rosso. It would

:21:59. > :22:02.be huge result. He's scored on teleoccasions so far this year,

:22:02. > :22:10.Daniel Ricciardo. It's always been down at the lower end of the top

:22:10. > :22:17.ten. His team-mate Vergne has got it a couple of times. His position

:22:17. > :22:22.13th. Gary, is Kobayashi doing enough here? Do you think he's got

:22:22. > :22:26.enough to keep Button behind him in the remaining laps? Yes, I think so.

:22:26. > :22:30.It's a situation where if he doesn't make a mistake, he'll be OK.

:22:30. > :22:35.Needs to keep enough of a gap for Button not to get into the DRS.

:22:35. > :22:39.That would be the big drama. As long as he doesn't make a mistake,

:22:39. > :22:43.I think he'd have it. Other battles to keep an aye on. Webber going

:22:43. > :22:47.quickly at this stage but he's five second on the behind Maldonado. He

:22:47. > :22:51.is in ninth place and we have heard he's had to change engine settings

:22:51. > :22:56.a little anyway. Maldonado looking to score points. Don't forget, it

:22:56. > :22:59.would be the third time this year that Maldonado would have scored

:23:00. > :23:04.any points if he manages to do it, he might have won in Spain and got

:23:04. > :23:07.points in China, but it's a long, long time since Maldonado has

:23:07. > :23:11.managed to score any points at all and he's kept himself out of

:23:11. > :23:18.trouble today and he's running in a fairly lonely, I say lonely, he's

:23:18. > :23:22.only a second or so behind Hulkenberg. A key little battle

:23:22. > :23:26.going on. John Button going on there keeping an eye on Jenson.

:23:26. > :23:32.Jenson maybe closing the gap a fraction. 1.3 at the sector point

:23:32. > :23:35.across the line. It's 1.2 across the line. Almost within DRS range

:23:35. > :23:39.now as they come down across start finish line.

:23:39. > :23:43.I have a feeling that the gap is closing so slowly that he won't

:23:43. > :23:49.have enough momentum once he gets on to the back of Kobayashi. He's

:23:49. > :23:54.running out of laps clearly. The Sauber is good at preserving tyres

:23:54. > :24:01.and McLaren seem out of form a little this weekend. Will it be too

:24:01. > :24:06.little too late? TEAM RADIO: We almost have DRS. That's the key

:24:06. > :24:11.isn't it. Almost have DRS which means once you get into the one

:24:11. > :24:16.second gap, the DRS is enabled but it's not easy. No - I almost won

:24:16. > :24:20.the lottery once. That's what it's all about! Button very fast in the

:24:20. > :24:24.first sector. How much did he take out? Nearly three tenths in the

:24:24. > :24:28.first sector alone. That is where the McLaren has its advantage, not

:24:28. > :24:36.so much elsewhere on this part of the track as we are just seeing

:24:36. > :24:44.another car pushed away in that pit lane. Sadly, being pushed out of

:24:44. > :24:48.this race. Glock still being pushed in the other Marussia. Still most

:24:48. > :24:57.of the cars running. Back on board with Button. How's that gap

:24:57. > :25:03.looking? Shadows Lengthening now as we are approaching 4.30 local time.

:25:03. > :25:07.Crucially Kobayashi is not using all his cars until he reaches the

:25:07. > :25:12.last line, saving some in case he needs to defend against Button

:25:12. > :25:18.being in the DRS zone so clever boy, doing everything he can in sight of

:25:18. > :25:22.his first podium. Two laps to go, or less than, now for Kobayashi,

:25:22. > :25:25.fighting for a drive in Formula One, as well as for his best ever finish.

:25:25. > :25:30.Health and Safety not confirmed to be in Formula One next year as yet,

:25:30. > :25:35.but a performance lake this could be enough to tip the BA lance. Who

:25:35. > :25:39.knows. But he's pushing for it -- balance. Vettel lead this is race

:25:39. > :25:42.by nearly 20 seconds. An absolutely outstanding performance by

:25:42. > :25:47.Sebastian Vettel. Mark Webber unable to go with him because he

:25:47. > :25:50.was hit by Grosjean grow in the first corner. Mark Webber will get

:25:50. > :25:54.something out of it. Still running in ninth position. A couple of

:25:54. > :26:01.points will go his way. Kobayashi shouldn't have too much of a

:26:01. > :26:06.concern at this point. Vettel's had it all his own Way and Massa

:26:06. > :26:09.heading for a podium. TEAM RADIO: Be careful, you have a lot to do on

:26:09. > :26:13.this one, be careful. They are telling him to be careful because

:26:13. > :26:16.Vettel is going faster and faster, just setting the fastest first

:26:16. > :26:24.sector and second sector. He's determined to go away with the

:26:24. > :26:30.fastest lap here today. Just done a 35.7 which in contrast to Massa in

:26:30. > :26:34.second place at 37.1. This is a constant battle the Red Bull team

:26:34. > :26:38.have with Sebastien, he loves the records and statistics. Even though

:26:38. > :26:43.he has a 20 second lead and should be stroking it home, he wants that

:26:43. > :26:49.fastest lap. On the last lap with Button and he'sshirely running out

:26:49. > :26:54.of time to snatch this place away from Kobayashi in the Sauber. So

:26:54. > :27:00.far, Kobayashi's driven beautifully. But can he hold it all together on

:27:00. > :27:08.the final lap and take what will only be the third podium for a

:27:08. > :27:12.Japanese driver in Grand Prix racing. Last time out was in 2040

:27:12. > :27:16.as Grosjean's car gets pushed away in pit lane joining the list of

:27:16. > :27:20.retirement. But it's not all sorted yet because Button's getting closer

:27:20. > :27:24.and closer on this final lap. They're also pretty close to Massa

:27:24. > :27:29.who's not far ahead of them. Cab Kobayashi in pushing as hard as he

:27:29. > :27:36.can to hold on to his third as closed up a bit to Massa, but look

:27:36. > :27:41.at Button now. He's right with him. He's taken half a second out of

:27:41. > :27:45.Kobayashi in that sector alone. nervous time for the Sauber team

:27:45. > :27:49.there. Can Button get close enough through Spoon to get a run on him

:27:49. > :27:54.down town the final chicane? Meanwhile, Vettel will come through

:27:54. > :28:00.to take his third win of 2012. He's the first back-to-back winner of

:28:00. > :28:04.the season. He won in Singapore and now he wins in Suzuka and what a

:28:04. > :28:10.performance, his third win in four races here! Another big store is

:28:10. > :28:15.that Massa is going to score his first podium position in virtually

:28:15. > :28:21.two years. He's brought it home for Ferrari as he fights for his career

:28:21. > :28:29.and for his drive. It's Kobayashi who takes third. His first ever

:28:29. > :28:36.podium and the crowd in front of us here on the grandstand going crazy.

:28:36. > :28:39.Kamui Kobayashi has done it, only the third time a Japanese driver's

:28:39. > :28:44.achieved a podium fun Nish in Formula One history. What a story,

:28:44. > :28:48.what a drive by this young Japanese driver.

:28:48. > :28:53.He told us he's been surrounded by fans all weekend, he hasn't been

:28:53. > :29:02.able to eat meals because the demand is there. Fairytales do

:29:02. > :29:07.happen in Japan. TEAM RADIO: Great job, Seb, well done. Great job,

:29:07. > :29:15.well done. Oh, yes, baby, yes, baby, yes, baby. Amazing. Thank you for

:29:15. > :29:20.that. Thank you. Unbelievable. There he is, Sebastian Vettel

:29:20. > :29:25.celebrating. He loves this track. What a record he has now. Just

:29:25. > :29:31.incredible. Third win in four races. Didn't win last year because he was

:29:31. > :29:39.fighting for the title and it hurt that he tnt win hefplt finished

:29:39. > :29:43.this third. -- he didn't win, he finished third. He's been under a

:29:43. > :29:49.lot of scrutiny in his performances, but today in a motor race, anything

:29:49. > :29:53.can happen and he tkhifr add good podium result. -- delivered a good

:29:53. > :29:57.podium result. He has delivered today. Smiles at Red Bull. Shame

:29:57. > :30:01.for Mark Webber, but he got hit at the first corner. Quickly running

:30:01. > :30:05.through the top ten, it's Vettel, Massa, Kobayashi, Button was only

:30:05. > :30:09.half a second behind in fourth, Hamilton was fifth, McLaren didn't

:30:09. > :30:13.swap them on the last lap, too close behind I guess, Raikkonen

:30:13. > :30:18.still scoring points, now the only driver to have finished every lap

:30:18. > :30:24.of every Grand Prix this year, Raikkonen. Hulkenberg in seventh,

:30:24. > :30:28.Maldonado gets points at last. Only the third time. Nine Grand Prixs

:30:28. > :30:38.since he's done so. Webber in ninth and Ricciardo held on to tenth. He

:30:38. > :30:53.

:30:53. > :31:03.fended off Schumacher at the end car was pushed away. Perez spun out.

:31:03. > :31:22.

:31:22. > :31:28.their way round. Let's listen to this. Good job, good job. Fantastic.

:31:28. > :31:33.Thank you, guys. Quite restrained, really, for Kamui Kobayashi.

:31:33. > :31:37.wonder if that tells us a bit about where he will be next year. We

:31:37. > :31:41.don't think he will be at Sauber. He will be delighted with the

:31:41. > :31:47.result, but maybe he is reflecting on the fact that he will not get to

:31:47. > :31:52.continue to share that Jenny next year. Here is a man who knows how

:31:52. > :31:58.to celebrate. Let's look at this man, 26-year-old Kamui Kobayashi,

:31:58. > :32:03.who didn't actually do much in his racing career in Japan in his early

:32:04. > :32:13.days. Most of his racing was done in Europe. Look at the reaction of.

:32:13. > :32:18.This is great. They recognise that Kamui Kobayashi is a character.

:32:18. > :32:27.When you interview him, he just speaks from the heart. He is well-

:32:27. > :32:35.liked by his peers. Listen to this. They are chanting for their hero.

:32:35. > :32:40.Let's watch as the drivers come out on the podium. And winning for Red

:32:40. > :32:44.Bull racing, Sebastian Vettel! Sebastian Vettel has been much

:32:44. > :32:48.taken to heart here in Japan with his success in recent years. Red

:32:48. > :32:53.Bull seemed to be back. There is talk about what they come up with

:32:53. > :32:59.for now. They may have some special tweaks for the car. We will find

:32:59. > :33:04.out next time in Korea. The first podium in two years for Felipe

:33:04. > :33:08.Massa. And what a time to do it, as the driver market is to be decided.

:33:08. > :33:12.He has got a bit carried away and forgotten the procedure. Wait for

:33:12. > :33:20.the other cup to be handed over before you start spraying your

:33:20. > :33:27.champagne. This is the one they all want to see. Kamui Kobayashi

:33:27. > :33:31.finishes third in Japan. Only the third Japanese driver ever to

:33:32. > :33:35.achieve that on. Sebastian Vettel has not only become the first

:33:35. > :33:41.driver to take back-to-back victories this year, he is now

:33:42. > :33:46.bearing down on a possible third title in a row, something only ever

:33:46. > :33:56.achieved by Schumacher in the past. The next five races are going to be

:33:56. > :34:03.

:34:03. > :34:06.points for Vettel. This was the moment he crossed the line in Japan.

:34:06. > :34:11.He inherited a win after Lewis Hamilton's troubles two weeks ago

:34:11. > :34:21.in Singapore, but here, he knows that all weekend, he has been the

:34:21. > :34:25.

:34:26. > :34:29.chat to any driver at this race, but we will try and join the

:34:29. > :34:39.impromptu autograph session and have a chat. Was your shirt

:34:39. > :34:43.

:34:43. > :34:47.race means in a moment. Thanks for that! Talk us through that race. It

:34:47. > :34:51.looked easy on the outside. How was it in the cockpit? Incredible.

:34:51. > :34:57.Yesterday was amazing. It is hard to describe to you guys. David

:34:57. > :35:03.knows exactly what I mean with what I am going to say. The car just

:35:03. > :35:06.felt amazing. Every lap, it just seemed to get quicker. We know it

:35:06. > :35:10.is important take care of your tyres etc. It was just getting

:35:11. > :35:15.better, and allowed me to really look after them. The speed was

:35:15. > :35:20.there until the end. It gets quicker every time you go up that

:35:20. > :35:25.hill. It looked like the team were tried to control your enthusiasm at

:35:25. > :35:30.the end, when you went, purple, purple, purple. Is there no sense

:35:30. > :35:34.of just wanting two-stroke it home? Well, I obviously was not trying to

:35:34. > :35:40.do something stupid. As I said, it does not happen too often that you

:35:40. > :35:46.have a car like that, so you also want to enjoy it. I was not sure if

:35:46. > :35:49.it was good enough or fast enough. It is not a number-one target. The

:35:49. > :35:54.number one target is to finish the race at that stage and just drive

:35:54. > :36:00.it home and get the points. So the lap I did was quicker than the laps

:36:00. > :36:05.before, but it was not comparable to qualifying. It just showed that

:36:05. > :36:08.the balance was there. I was able to go quick when I wanted to.

:36:09. > :36:12.know the PR answer is that there are a lot of races to go and make

:36:12. > :36:15.things can happen between now and the end of the season, but to see

:36:15. > :36:21.the development that car has gone through, how much confidence does

:36:21. > :36:25.that give you? It was a bit of a surprise for us as well to see that

:36:25. > :36:30.the pace was so strong. I know we didn't have any major upgrades, so

:36:30. > :36:40.we are obviously pushing all the time. The guys in Milton Keynes are

:36:40. > :36:44.working so hard. We are about to build a new reception. The priority

:36:44. > :36:51.was to improve the car, so I don't mind if the reception is not

:36:51. > :36:54.finished until the end of the year. Priorities. But on a circuit like

:36:54. > :36:58.this, you really need the car coming together, and then you are

:36:58. > :37:04.able to make a big difference. Then you are able to look after the

:37:04. > :37:09.tyres. And you create a difference. We will let the fans have another

:37:09. > :37:16.piece of you, but if I could have a �15 so I can get another shirt from

:37:16. > :37:20.your win bonus? For Sebastian Vettel, the man who is now just

:37:20. > :37:30.four point away from Fernando Alonso and is also ruining my shirt.

:37:30. > :38:07.

:38:07. > :38:11.What does it mean for the David, Sebastian has disappeared

:38:11. > :38:14.with his fans. They are turning their attention to Korea already.

:38:14. > :38:18.We will turn our attention back to the start of that race. It could be

:38:18. > :38:25.the one that turns this championship around? Very

:38:25. > :38:30.unfortunate racing incident for Fernando Alonso. Not as good for

:38:30. > :38:40.Mark Webber. Kobayashi gets a great start. Then you see the Ferrari of

:38:40. > :38:41.

:38:41. > :38:45.Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen coming together. Here, we get a

:38:45. > :38:54.really good idea of how minimal the contract was, but how big it could

:38:55. > :39:04.be. It was just a kiss on the rear tyre. It touches against Fernando

:39:05. > :39:05.

:39:05. > :39:08.Alonso. The problem was Romain Grosjean having yet another start

:39:08. > :39:15.incident, this time with Mark Webber. This is difficult to

:39:15. > :39:21.explain. Again, it is another error of judgment. The cars go off the

:39:21. > :39:25.line with 150 kilos of fuel on board. He makes it through term one

:39:25. > :39:30.fine, but then he rams the back of Mark Webber. It is never nice to

:39:30. > :39:33.beat up on the young drivers, but there have been too many incidents.

:39:33. > :39:37.Mark Webber worked hard to recover and finished ninth in the race.

:39:37. > :39:41.Romain Grosjean has only been back for One Grand Prix after being

:39:41. > :39:45.banned after the incident earlier. But his punishment here was just a

:39:45. > :39:52.ten-second stop-go penalty. Let's hear from him.

:39:52. > :39:56.Tell us what happened at the start? I was trying to be very careful at

:39:56. > :40:06.the start. But it was a quick corner in turn one, so I was trying

:40:06. > :40:12.to avoid contact. But I did not see the speed of Mark Webber in front,

:40:12. > :40:16.so I touched him. In some ways, was the stop-go penalty a bit of a

:40:16. > :40:26.relief? That means the stewards had dealt with the situation, instead

:40:26. > :40:28.

:40:28. > :40:35.of a ban after the race, like happened before. Yes. It was not an

:40:35. > :40:40.easy situation after the ban, trying to be careful.

:40:40. > :40:44.He looks almost in tears, doesn't he? This must be a low point for

:40:44. > :40:50.Romain Grosjean. He served his ban, came back and then one race later,

:40:50. > :40:53.he is getting involved again. He is reflected at this time. It is one

:40:53. > :41:00.of the challenges. He has had this difficult race, and then he has to

:41:00. > :41:03.face the media. He has to look inside her. At that moment, his

:41:03. > :41:08.instincts are not giving him the right messages. After the incident,

:41:08. > :41:12.he seemed quite reserved behind the wheel as the Grand Prix carried on.

:41:13. > :41:17.Clearly, he was in a reflective mood it at that point, but he

:41:17. > :41:22.almost needs to be in that mood as he goes off the start line to avoid

:41:22. > :41:27.those first-lap incidents. There have been too many of them. What

:41:27. > :41:30.did the rest of the grid think? This was Mark Webber's opinion.

:41:30. > :41:35.A Romain Grosjean hit you and synched to cause more problems at

:41:35. > :41:40.the start of the race. What are your feelings on that? Yeah, I

:41:40. > :41:44.don't know what the issue is. We are starting an hour and a half

:41:44. > :41:49.Grand Prix. We all go into the first part of the lap, and then I

:41:49. > :41:53.get creamed in the right rear. I was hoping for his sake that

:41:53. > :41:58.somebody else hit him, but they said it was all his own doing.

:41:58. > :42:03.Maybe we should have two separate stars, one for him, one for us.

:42:03. > :42:07.almost getting to that point. In this situation, do the drivers have

:42:07. > :42:12.a chat with Romain Grosjean, or do they ramp up the pressure, because

:42:12. > :42:16.it is costing them.? This is a big- money sport. This is not a cuddly

:42:16. > :42:20.sport in terms of people putting their arms around anyone. He has to

:42:20. > :42:28.sort this out on his own, otherwise, he will be marginalised by the

:42:28. > :42:35.drivers. Lewis, not the day you had hoped

:42:35. > :42:39.for. Sum up your race? In it was OK. It was not too bad. I pushed as

:42:39. > :42:44.hard as I could throughout the whole race. It just wasn't the

:42:44. > :42:50.weekend for me, but I still got some points. Very strange things

:42:50. > :42:57.were happening in the car throughout the race. I was under

:42:57. > :43:02.steering like I was in qualifying. Then the car started turning all of

:43:02. > :43:05.a sudden, so I have to find out what that was. Into terms of the

:43:05. > :43:09.championship, do you think you should have been allowed to get

:43:09. > :43:14.past Jenson? A couple of points could be crucial. No. It would not

:43:14. > :43:19.have made much difference. Sebastian has done a great job

:43:19. > :43:24.today. Jenson drove really well all weekend. So we got some good points

:43:24. > :43:31.together. Fifth place for Lewis. He almost feel happy about that after

:43:31. > :43:35.having such a tough qualifying yesterday. He is very calm in his

:43:35. > :43:37.own mind. It was nice to hear in that interview that he was adamant

:43:37. > :43:43.that the team did the right thing by not changing the running order,

:43:43. > :43:47.given that he has more points in the world championship. He is

:43:47. > :43:53.showing that he is comfortable in that he did all he could. He is

:43:53. > :43:57.still talking about issues with the car. A couple of weeks ago, he was

:43:57. > :44:04.cost a victory that could have made a difference. How unnerving is that

:44:04. > :44:08.for a driver? Clearly, it was very unnerving. He said he could fill a

:44:08. > :44:12.third when the car started to turn. There will be some analysis in the

:44:12. > :44:20.week between now and the Korean Grand Prix. I let's talk about the

:44:20. > :44:27.man he had a battle with. There was a nice battle out on track. 1-0 to

:44:27. > :44:31.Sergio. The door was wide open as he came into turn 11. That was a

:44:31. > :44:36.particularly nice pass. Lewis was quite kind to him, leaving the door

:44:36. > :44:40.open as he came down at the inside. That contrasts with what happened

:44:40. > :44:47.later. What was Sergio thinking? probably thought to Lewis was going

:44:47. > :44:55.to do the same thing. It is naive in some respects that Lewis would

:44:55. > :44:59.be passed price on the same corner. Sergio was caught out. Give us an

:44:59. > :45:04.insight into the mind of Sergio Perez at this point. How much did

:45:04. > :45:09.he want to get past Lewis Hamilton because of what it means for the

:45:09. > :45:13.bigger picture? He would be thinking, I have passed him once, I

:45:13. > :45:21.will do the same thing again. But you are dealing with someone that

:45:21. > :45:26.has won a world championship. He is unlikely to be caught out twice.

:45:26. > :45:29.For is that the first thing to tell Sergio for next time? That was a

:45:29. > :45:34.reaction to Lewis pulling to the left hand side. I don't think

:45:34. > :45:37.Sergio imagined he would go round the outside. Me a while, Lewis

:45:37. > :45:42.Hamilton's team-mate was involved in an exciting chase towards the

:45:42. > :45:48.end, trying to catch up with Kamui Kobayashi, but that again was not

:45:48. > :45:54.without problems. He had troubles with his gearbox. Something must

:45:54. > :45:57.have happened during the day -- Grand Prix that made him unsettled.

:45:57. > :46:02.These are seamless gearboxes, but if you have a slight delay, that

:46:02. > :46:08.would be enough to prompt a question of the engineers. I know

:46:08. > :46:12.you are good mates with Jenson Button, but were you happy? To deny

:46:12. > :46:16.the Kamui Kobayashi would have been painful. Racing is racing. But as I

:46:16. > :46:20.said in a commentary, it is a great story with Kamui Kobayashi being on

:46:20. > :46:30.the podium. It would have been a great story for Jenson Button as

:46:30. > :46:39.

:46:39. > :46:42.well. He was not far behind Kamui How close were you to getting past

:46:42. > :46:46.Kamui Kobayashi, another lap away? I think he controlled that set of

:46:46. > :46:49.tyres pretty well. The second set he didn't and he destroyed them

:46:49. > :46:53.after just a few laps. So that's why I was automobile to get close.

:46:53. > :46:59.I think he controlled a bit better. The last lap is when they started

:46:59. > :47:04.to go. I got close, but the only way I could get DRS was to brake

:47:04. > :47:09.for the chicane. Every time I locked up and ran wide. Not a bad

:47:09. > :47:16.result considering where we started. I was third after turn two, but our

:47:16. > :47:20.first pit stop we got a little bit wrong. It's very difficult. Massa

:47:20. > :47:26.was able to jump us, but it was always going to be difficult to

:47:26. > :47:32.beat Massa because he started the race with new tyres. He started

:47:33. > :47:37.tenth but he ablg chully didn't get into three -- actually. Not bad,

:47:37. > :47:40.fourth place, some more points but I don't think we had the pace today.

:47:40. > :47:45.You sounded unsettled at one point talking about the gear box. Was

:47:45. > :47:53.there a problem with the car? kept going into neutral and missing

:47:53. > :47:57.gears. Yes, it was after the stops for about three laps each time. I

:47:57. > :48:01.kept changing down and there's no gears, you know, it was in neutral,

:48:01. > :48:09.so it was tricky but then the guys said there are no problems so I

:48:09. > :48:12.guess it was just sinking in the gears after the pit stops.

:48:12. > :48:17.A really mixed day for frarrifplt it's always a horrible thing to say,

:48:17. > :48:21.but in the cold light of Grand Prix results and what they mean for the

:48:21. > :48:25.Championship, the wrong man had a Championship for Ferrari. They'll

:48:25. > :48:29.be frustrated how Alonso's race finished? Alonso's been around long

:48:29. > :48:31.enough to understand in the course of the racing season you will have

:48:31. > :48:35.one reliability issue and one incident during the course of the

:48:35. > :48:38.year, he's had two accidents on the first lap, no fault of his own.

:48:38. > :48:42.That's racing. He's still leading in the Championship. It's a five

:48:42. > :48:45.sprint race now. The fact that the gap has closed up so much. How much

:48:45. > :48:50.do you put that down to the fact that in the past four races he's

:48:50. > :48:58.been taken out at the start and how much due to the fact that Ferrari

:48:58. > :49:01.are being taken out? At no point do I think they've had the fastest

:49:01. > :49:04.package but they've been consistent, reliability's been on their side

:49:04. > :49:08.and they've maximised their opportunities. They knead to

:49:08. > :49:12.continue to develop the car in the remaining races, the top teams will.

:49:12. > :49:16.This is a divofplt of battle between the clan and the Ferrari.

:49:16. > :49:19.Red Bull had the dominant car -- development. Interesting that

:49:19. > :49:25.Alonso turns his attention to Korea. He's experienced enough to know

:49:25. > :49:28.there's still a way to go, fave races still to be fought over.

:49:28. > :49:34.Felipe Massa fought for his future in Formula One and who knows, maybe

:49:34. > :49:38.he managed to catch it. He finished on the podium, his first in almost

:49:38. > :49:45.two years. Congratulations. Sum up how you are

:49:45. > :49:55.feeling? Very happy. It was a great race, a fantastic start, fantastic

:49:55. > :50:00.

:50:00. > :50:04.base. Starting times to start. It was even more trusting, you know.

:50:04. > :50:12.Very happy, I mean. Even motivational after almost two years

:50:12. > :50:19.without going to the podium, so a place that was more than I expected

:50:19. > :50:22.in my whole clear, Dr Dr Whole career, you know. Two years not

:50:22. > :50:32.going to podium is very difficult. It will be very important for my

:50:32. > :50:36.head, pi brain and for me from now on and also my future as Elle.

:50:36. > :50:40.as well. Explain how difficult it's been. We saw you on the podium so

:50:40. > :50:44.often and then to have 35 races without one. How much did you

:50:44. > :50:52.struggle with that behind-the- scenes? Fpblgt a lot, a lot. For

:50:52. > :51:02.sure you think about so many things, you know, things that are not going

:51:02. > :51:02.

:51:02. > :51:09.well and you are unhappy. It's not nice, it's not easy. Even if we are

:51:09. > :51:15.doing one of the best sports, you know, I think we are doing it for a

:51:15. > :51:20.reason, for victory, for Championships and podium and

:51:20. > :51:24.everything. Even if you are in the most important team. If you don't

:51:24. > :51:28.have the result you are not happy so I was not happy for sure. But I

:51:28. > :51:33.think this will be very important for me. Important for your career

:51:33. > :51:37.at Ferrari? Yes, definitely also. That's the tell-tale point isn't

:51:37. > :51:40.it? He's fighting for his future and you can only base a drive's

:51:41. > :51:46.future on the results you get and if he picks up podiums, they'll

:51:46. > :51:52.keep him, simple as that? Yes, two years he was very open this saying

:51:52. > :51:56.how disapointed he's been in himself and how it preys on you. It

:51:57. > :52:00.will be interesting to see how he performs the next few races. When

:52:00. > :52:03.he was struggling, a season or so ago, he was saying everything's

:52:03. > :52:06.fine, I'm confident and calm. Now Health and Safety got the podium,

:52:06. > :52:10.Health and Safety revealed it was really tough? Yes, it tells you

:52:10. > :52:14.don't listen to a word they are saying during the difficult times

:52:14. > :52:17.but what else could he say, you know, he's answering questions not

:52:17. > :52:27.only to us but the national TV companies out there, so they just

:52:27. > :52:29.

:52:29. > :52:33.want to try to keep their focus. It's hard to know how Force India

:52:33. > :52:38.will feel. They told us after Singapore they came here not

:52:38. > :52:45.confident of Q3 or picking up any points yet they have Nico

:52:45. > :52:50.Hulkenberg finishing seventh which is great? Disappointment for Paul

:52:50. > :52:54.di Resta. They've managed to maintain the place so they are

:52:54. > :52:59.happy with the result. The teams at the back we are talking about them

:52:59. > :53:07.never scoring points. In the midfield, this Mercedes, Sauber,

:53:07. > :53:12.Williams und ya force bat -- Williams and Force India, it's a

:53:12. > :53:16.battle? And we have four races to see who will be the Championships

:53:16. > :53:19.and very few regulations changing into next year so we can expect

:53:19. > :53:23.more of the same next year. Hard lines for Paul who had an issue

:53:23. > :53:25.with the clutch at the start. How much was his race affected by what

:53:25. > :53:30.happened at the start of the Grand Prix?

:53:30. > :53:34.A difficult day out this it looked today, Paul? Yes, I was on the back

:53:34. > :53:39.foot. Unfortunately, the car broke after the parade lap, the clutch

:53:39. > :53:42.broke, so kind of expected when we were going round towards the grid

:53:42. > :53:46.and then obviously at the race start when you lose that many

:53:46. > :53:50.places and you are back on your way through, but just struggled a bit

:53:50. > :53:55.from there. Once you are out of sync, you never get the balance

:53:55. > :53:58.tuned to where we need to be. I don't think the speed was

:53:58. > :54:03.horrendously off, it's just your position and I suppose after the

:54:03. > :54:09.stops you need to be in free air and we never done that today.

:54:09. > :54:13.close were you to the contact at the start? I was behind it. Going

:54:13. > :54:18.into turn one, there could have been many cars behind me. When you

:54:18. > :54:21.are in that position, you can see what's happening. I was maybe a bit

:54:21. > :54:25.hesitant. Better to keep the car in one piece though.

:54:25. > :54:29.The clutch was the problem at the start? Yes, that's what the team

:54:29. > :54:33.told me. Definitely broke on the launch procedure. As we said, we

:54:34. > :54:39.had warning before it went for the race start. Issues for Paul's car.

:54:39. > :54:43.Talking about all things technical, the Gaz-pad. You have unlocked

:54:43. > :54:47.something special don't you? Yes, we brought a new rear wing assembly

:54:47. > :54:51.to this place and when the wing was opened, it lets air through a hole

:54:51. > :54:55.and down the end to the beam wing and the middle section you can do

:54:55. > :55:01.what you want with it, it's open for any design work. That lets the

:55:01. > :55:07.air come out. It stalls the diffuser so you get a straighter

:55:07. > :55:15.speed. A few races left and the team are still pushing on. Briefly,

:55:15. > :55:21.do you think the McLaren strategy could have cost Button a podium?

:55:21. > :55:26.Button should have put on the soft tyre for me. Far ahead of Hamilton

:55:26. > :55:36.enough not to worry. He could have got closer to Kobayashi. So if it

:55:36. > :55:42.

:55:43. > :55:46.was a wrong decision, it could have For most of the race, the team are

:55:46. > :55:49.only cheering on one drive, Kamui Kobayashi. This is the moment he

:55:49. > :55:53.crossed the line to finish third here in Japan.

:55:53. > :55:58.We are here with the man of the moment. Kamui Kobayashi, the party

:55:58. > :56:01.is continuing here in Japan. Lovely scenes of you and it's amazing the

:56:01. > :56:06.grandstands stay full late into the night and a Hans for you to share

:56:06. > :56:16.your special day with the fans? it's a great feeling. After the

:56:16. > :56:21.

:56:21. > :56:24.race, it's just a matter of waiting. It's amazing. You seem to enjoy the

:56:24. > :56:28.podium ceremony, you were leaning up against the barrier drinking the

:56:28. > :56:31.champagne, so making the most of it? I enjoy it, my job is almost

:56:31. > :56:35.done, you know, so I could relax. It wasn't though during the race

:56:35. > :56:38.exyou had to fight until the checkered flag. Can you no you

:56:38. > :56:44.reflect and tell us how concerned were you about Jenson Button

:56:44. > :56:53.closing down on you? Very tough, he was very quick. My tyres a little

:56:53. > :56:55.bit older than his. Holding him to checkered flag is a fantastic

:56:55. > :57:05.feeling. Your first podium. Plans for

:57:05. > :57:07.

:57:07. > :57:13.tonight. Will you be able to leave the track? I won't leave. I try to

:57:13. > :57:19.organise things to come back here tomorrow. You enjoy it, Kamui.

:57:19. > :57:22.Savour every moment, your first podium here in Japan. Well done.

:57:22. > :57:25.Congratulations. Obviously it's tough when you have had a great day

:57:25. > :57:30.and you have to do commitments, but the important thing for him to

:57:30. > :57:33.focus on isn't just on this race but also what it means for his

:57:34. > :57:39.future? That's why he's soaking up this moment. Seems to be a period

:57:39. > :57:43.of reflection that maybe he doesn't have a future here with the Sauber

:57:43. > :57:47.team but he is an asset to Formula One. No gap between this race and

:57:47. > :57:51.when we head to South Korea. Join us for the action. We'll be live

:57:51. > :57:54.for the Korean Grand Prix. Qualifying gets going from 5 on

:57:54. > :57:58.Saturday morning, another early start on Sunday too, 6am for that.

:57:58. > :58:01.After this result, it's well worth tuning in. Sebastian Vettel is

:58:01. > :58:04.doing what he did a couple of years ago, honing in on the Championship

:58:04. > :58:08.at just the right time, the gap between him and Fernando Alonso is

:58:08. > :58:13.just four points with five races left to go. It would take quite a

:58:13. > :58:17.result here to overshadow that particular statistic, but it has.