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

photo credit ©XPB

Author: Jeff