Sebastian Vettel dominated the 53-lap Japanese Grand Prix from pole position to keep himself in championship contention on a day that Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button could only record the final points paying positions.

Vettel converted his pole into a comfortable race lead at the start, even managing to save a little fuel on his first stint and manage the gap back to the fast-starting Lewis Hamilton.

“I do,” replied Vettel when asked if he felt great. “The biggest threat was lap one, the start. The car was fantastic, so I was able to push lap by lap and increase the gap bit by bit. Obviously with the strategy we were two laps longer than Lewis and a lap longer than Jarno in the first stint, so it all worked out. Until the end I was pretty much in control.”

Sunday Race Results:

Position (Points)	Driver	Team	Laps	Time	Gain/Loss
1 (10)	Vettel	Red Bull Racing	53	1:28:20.443	-
2 (8)	Trulli	Toyota	53	1:28:25.320	-
3 (6)	Hamilton	McLaren Mercedes	53	1:28:26.915	-
4 (5)	Raikkonen	Scuderia Ferrari	53	1:28:28.383	+4
5 (4)	Rosberg	Williams	53	1:28:29.236	+6
6 (3)	Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	53	1:28:29.952	-
7 (2)	Barrichello	Brawn GP	53	1:28:31.084	-2
8 (1)	Button	Brawn GP	53	1:28:31.917	-1
9	Kubica	BMW Sauber	53	1:28:32.220	+4
10	Alonso	Renault	53	1:28:33.508	+2
11	Kovalainen	McLaren Mercedes	53	1:28:34.178	-2
12	Fisichella	Scuderia Ferrari	53	1:28:35.039	+4
13	Sutil	Force India	53	1:28:35.402	-9
14	Liuzzi	Force India	53	1:28:36.177	+5
15	Nakajima	Williams	53	1:28:38.416	+2
16	Grosjean	Renault	52	1:28:39.798	+2
17	Webber	Red Bull Racing	51	1:28:42.682	+3
18	Alguersuari	Scuderia Toro Rosso	43	1:08:50.124	-3
19	Buemi	Scuderia Toro Rosso	11	18:10.187	-9
20	Glock	Toyota	N/A	N/A	-6

Qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix saw most of the top ten runners opt for similar two-stop strategies for Sunday’s 53-lap race.

Sebastian Vettel starts on the pole position and significantly Jarno Trulli, Lewis Hamilton and Adrian Sutil will be forced to pit for fuel before him. This puts the Red Bull Renault driver in a very strong position as he chases his third win of the season.

The rain returned ahead of Friday afternoon practice ensuring that the second 90-minute practice session was a frustrating affair resulting in very limited mileage for the 20 runners. With just three sets of intermediate and four sets of full wet tires permitted over the weekend, most opted to stay dry in the pits rather than lapping the Suzuka Circuit.

Only Jaime Alguersuari and Toro Rosso Ferrari team-mate Sebastien Buemi completed an installation lap in the first hour of the session before Fernando Alonso and Alguersuari took top the circuit with 30 minutes remaining. “If we had more tires, I think people would be going out and doing more running,” admitted morning pace-setter Heikki Kovalainen who opted not to run at all.

The final 15 minutes saw most complete a short stint of a few timed laps on the full wet tires. Adrian Sutil set the pace as the checkered flag flew with a best lap of 1:47.231s, seven seconds off Heikki Kovalainen’s best lap in the dryer morning session.