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2009 JAPANESE GP

Welcome to the 2009 Japanese GP Thread. cjek and mjk1 will keep the thread updated with the latest times as they happen.

RANDOM FACT

The 2009 Japanese GP is the 25th time the event has taken place. In 11 of the 24 races so far, the World Title has been decided.

POINTS OF DISCUSSION

1. Formula One returns to Suzuka for the first time since 2006 - are you glad to see the back of Fuji?
2. What has been the most defining moment for you at the Suzuka circuit throughout its history?
3. It now seems imminent that the announcement will be made of Alonso's move to Ferrari. What are your thoughts on the team of Ferrari/Alonso/Massa for 2010?
4. 15 points down and three races to go - can you see Barrichello finding his way back from the deficit and snatching the crown from Jenson?
5. With Mark Webber out of the championship picture, to what extent will his assistance be in aiding Vettel's minimal challenge for the World Title?

SCHEDULE FOR WEEKEND

Friday 2
First practice: 1000-1130 (0200-0330 BST)
Second practice: 1400-1530 (0600-0730 BST)

Saturday 3
Third practice: 1100-1200 (0300-0400 BST)
Qualifying: 1400 (0600 BST)

Sunday 4
Race: 1400 (0600 BST)

WEEKEND WEATHER

FRIDAY: Heavy Rain, Max 24 deg. cent.
SATURDAY: Heavy Rain Shower, Max 26 deg. cent.
SUNDAY: Sunny, Max 25 deg. cent.

PRESS CONFERENCE SCHEDULE

THURSDAY:Jenson Button (Brawn GP), Timo Glock (Toyota), Nick Heidfeld (BMW-Sauber), Kazuki Nakajima (Williams) and Adrian Sutil (Force India). 6AM BST.

FRIDAY:Bob Bell (Renault), Christian Horner (Red Bull), John Howett (Toyota) and Hiroshi Yasukawa (Bridgestone). 7AM BST.

BBC PRESENTS THE JAPANESE GP

PREVIOUS SESSIONS
Friday Practice 1
Friday Practice 2
Qualifying
Race (Unavailable)
Forum (Unavailable)

Fuji is an alright circuit but it isn't anything as good as Suzuka.

Prost/Senna incidents etc etc but my fave and the best moment I've watched live there was Kimi's pass on Fisichella in 2005. It was made of the most epic and win possible.

Well it's not official yet and it's going to cost someone somewhere a pretty penny to pay Kimi NOT to race for Ferrari next year. It will be interesting to see how this plays out and there is plenty of evidence for both ways. Maybe Ferrari can convince the other teams that three cars is the way to go (SUPER unlikely) but stranger things have happened... like a damper becoming a moveable aerodynamic device...

I hope so, purely for the underdog reason and secondly due to Barrichello being more consistant. He's had some bad luck while Button walked the first few races of the season. It's one thing to win with a car advantage, it's another to consistantly destroy the competition ala Schumi 2002-2004 or fight the whole season with real competition ala Alonso 2006, Kimi 2007 and Hamilton 2008.

Its a shame he's out of the running but I think if he is able to influence the championship positively for Vettel he will do what he can.

Hey, I'm liking the weather pattern going on here.XSamFisherX

You spoke too soon - dry on Sunday.

[QUOTE="XSamFisherX"]Hey, I'm liking the weather pattern going on here.Redders1989

You spoke too soon - dry on Sunday.

Classic Japanese GP's... thank god it includes 2005!

1976 | 1989 | 1994 | 2000 | 2005

Extended Highlights

1994

Pfft if its that sorta weather conditions, I'd love to see 2005 happen all over again :)kipi19

Take into consideration though that qualifying has changed since 2005. During that session, it was dry for the majority of the session until the big names hit like Schumacher, Alonso and Raikkonen. Now we have the elimination process, the backmarkers will already be at the back of the grid if the weather pattern were to play out exactly the same as qualifying in 2005.

[QUOTE="kipi19"]Pfft if its that sorta weather conditions, I'd love to see 2005 happen all over again :)Redders1989

Take into consideration though that qualifying has changed since 2005. During that session, it was dry for the majority of the session until the big names hit like Schumacher, Alonso and Raikkonen. Now we have the elimination process, the backmarkers will already be at the back of the grid if the weather pattern were to play out exactly the same as qualifying in 2005.

Drivers currently on the F1 grid who have never been to Suzuka in this sport:

Lewis Hamilton (McLaren)
Heikki Kovalainen (McLaren)
Romain Grosjean (Renault)
Sebastien Buemi (Toro Rosso)
Jaime Alguersuari (Toro Rosso)
Kazuki Nakajima (Williams)

Both Sebastian Vettel and Adrian Sutil have been to Suzuka in F1, but only in Test Driver roles (2006 for both).

Q. (Marco Degli'Innocenti – La Gazzetta dello Sport) I have a question for Adrian: if you can tell us something about your future. Maybe you are going to drive another Mercedes engine somewhere else?

AS: Well, right now I've got a real good offer, driving in a winning team… in GP2! I'm going to try to go there!Autosport

 whats that about ??

THE RED LIGHT

It's difficult to call this weekend.

In regards to the Championships, the only loser from Singapore was Mark Webber. His team could still take the Constructors' Championship, but they need to take at least 7 points out of Brawn GP this weekend to do so. A 1-2 finish for the team guarantees this.

For the Driver's Championship, Sebastian Vettel has to outscore Jenson Button by 6 points - no easy feat, but potentially possible. I'll explain later. As for Barrichello, he has to ensure he doesn't lose 5 points to Jenson Button. In fact:

If Jenson Button finishes 4th in Japan and Barrichello does not score, then the Brit will win the World Championship.

That's not as easy as it sounds, however. Red Bull in all theory should be the top dogs this weekend. The track - and weather conditions predicted so far - should play right in to their hands. As we've seen, when it comes to cold/wet conditions the Red Bull cars shine brightest of them all, and not to mention the nature of the circuit is suited to their cars. Therefore barring any strange incidents, it won't be too surprising to see a Red Bull 1-2 this weekend.

However, the person stopping them from doing that is one Mr. Kimi Raikkonen.

He's been on fire since Massa's injury, albeit suffering a blip when the Ferrari just couldn't deliver in Singapore. In Suzuka, Raikkonen is a star - let's not forget he won possibly one of the greatest races in modern history here just 4 years ago. Therein lies the problem: Whilst he's a Suzuka star, one has to question his mentality going into the race knowing now he will not be a Ferrari driver in 2010. With nothing to push for, will he just become the lazy Kimi, or is he going to push harder for another top seat in 2010? This weekend will answer that question for us.

On the contrary, if Kimi was on fire, Alonso is one massive blaze right now. 3rd in Singapore (on merit), and now a confirmed Ferrari driver for next season. If it's not worrying enough for the rest of the field he extracts everything from a car normally, just watch him now. Given the right car next year, there could be no stopping him.

The battle for the title between Button and Barrichello could come to an end this weekend, however I don't see that being the case. Jenson will have to be rather lucky to take the crown this weekend, but since Silverstone that's been the case of his season - when he's not had the chance to be taking the fight, his opponents have also stumbled. Calling Button an unworthy Champion is simply the wrong thing to do - he won 6 out of 7 races in a car Barrichello could've easily done the same with, and when the opportunities came knocking for his title rivals to close the gap, they didn't take it. Vettel's mistake in Singapore was yet another example of that very point being shown.

Glock surprised a lot of people in Singapore, taking the 2nd place that he did. It's as if he'd had a switch flicked on and suddenly became Timo Glock again, and now he needs another strong performance in Japan. I don't quite know what to expect of Toyota this weekend, given all the uncertainties, so I'm gonna have to sit on the fence and say they'll ither be really good, or really bad. Or cause a Trulli Train.

Could we see Force India up the front again? Maybe. Suzuka and Spa are rather similar in characteristics, but the rain is a big factor - Sutil is one of the wet masters, but for some reason is also prone to making frequent errors in the wet - possibly the first wet master/non-master in history. Sunday's race is expected to be dry, but as for qualifying it will be a gamble as to where they start exactly.

Which is one more thing to add - any of you thinking "yes, wet qualifying and dry race, we'll have 2005 all over again!", there are points to be remembered:

- Single-lap qualifying was used in 2005;
- The rain came near the end of the session, before Alonso, Schumacher, Montoya and Raikkonen had hit the circuit;
- With the elimination qualifying in 2009, if the weather was exactly the same as 2005 the backmarkers would already be at the back of the grid.

So all in all, who'll be where? Red Bulls to take it, closely followed by Raikkonen and Alonso, then the Brawns will fit in somewhere.

Oh yeah, McLaren... Spa-Francorchamps. That's all I need say. Unless their last upgrade has sorted that out, in which I'll be eating my words.

PRACTICE 1

Pos  Driver        Team                      Time              Laps
 1.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:40.356           24
 2.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota      (B)  1:40.648 + 0.292   18
 3.  Sutil         Force India-Mercedes (B)  1:40.806 + 0.450   14
 4.  Fisichella    Ferrari              (B)  1:40.985 + 0.629   27
 5.  Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  1:41.421 + 1.065   26
 6.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:41.443 + 1.087   15
 7.  Alonso        Renault              (B)  1:41.532 + 1.176   22
 8.  Raikkonen     Ferrari              (B)  1:41.577 + 1.221   25
 9.  Barrichello   Brawn GP-Mercedes    (B)  1:41.821 + 1.465   18
10.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota      (B)  1:42.188 + 1.832   20
11.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault     (B)  1:42.332 + 1.976   10
12.  Liuzzi        Force India-Mercedes (B)  1:42.475 + 2.119   15
13.  Trulli        Toyota               (B)  1:42.657 + 2.301   13
14.  Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  1:42.667 + 2.311   27
15.  Kubica        BMW Sauber           (B)  1:42.833 + 2.477   16
16.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber           (B)  1:42.977 + 2.621   14
17.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault     (B)  1:43.218 + 2.862   11
18.  Button        Brawn GP-Mercedes    (B)  1:43.318 + 2.962   17
19.  Kobayashi     Toyota               (B)  1:43.407 + 3.051   16
20.  Grosjean      Renault              (B)  1:43.572 + 3.216   22

AUTOSPORT

PRACTICE 2

Pos  Driver       Team                       Time              Laps
 1.  Sutil        Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:47.261            5
 2.  Vettel       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:47.923  + 0.662   6
 3.  Liuzzi       Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:47.931  + 0.670   4
 4.  Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:47.983  + 0.722   5
 5.  Nakajima     Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:48.058  + 0.797   8
 6.  Buemi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:48.691  + 1.430   9
 7.  Alonso       Renault               (B)  1:48.693  + 1.432   5
 8.  Trulli       Toyota                (B)  1:48.737  + 1.476   6
 9.  Alguersuari  Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:48.802  + 1.541  11
10.  Kubica       BMW-Sauber            (B)  1:48.861  + 1.600   6
11.  Raikkonen    Ferrari               (B)  1:48.886  + 1.625   4
12.  Kobayashi    Toyota                (B)  1:49.054  + 1.793   7
13.  Webber       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:49.382  + 2.121   7
14.  Grosjean     Renault               (B)  1:49.405  + 2.144   6
15.  Fisichella   Ferrari               (B)  1:49.553  + 2.292   5
16.  Rosberg      Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:49.872  + 2.611   7
17.  Heidfeld     BMW-Sauber            (B)  1:50.179  + 2.918   9
18.  Kovalainen   McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  No time
19.  Button       Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  No time
20.  Barrichello  Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  No time

AUTOSPORT

If there's any time you shouldn't crash the car during a weekend, it's a few minutes before the end of the final practice session. Unfortunately, that's exactly what Mark Webber's done, and so he may be a doubt for Qualifying.

UPDATE: Mark Webber will not be participating in Qualifying today.

Some other championship-winning possibilities for Jenson:

- Jenson wins, Rubens is 4th or lower;
- Jenson 2nd, Rubens 6th or lower;
- Jenson 3rd, Rubens 8th or lower;
- Jenson 4th, Rubens out of the points.

Button finishing 5th or lower guarantees that the title fight continues in to Brazil.

Red Flag in Q2 for a crash with Alguersuari - appears to be winded from the crash. He's the fourth victim today of the same corner - with Webber crashing, Buemi smacking the wall but recovering and Kovalainen spinning before the young Spaniard's crash.

Another Red Flag in Q2, this time with Timo Glock going off in the final corner. Another big one, and the car has gone under the barrier. In both sessions, Button has been attempting a flying lap when the red flag was shown. Sadly, the white screen has been put up over the car - seems Glock could be injured.

Regarding the first incident, Jaime Alguersuari is fine.

Timo Glock has been stretchered on to an Ambulance. Word from Toyota is that he has a leg wound.

In other news, Liuzzi will have a penalty for a gearbox change - which, if Webber starts from the pitlane won't make a blind bit of difference to the Italian.

And to top it all off, Buemi's damaged the front of his car which compounds ANOTHER lap for Button, but this time he finally gets a chance to bring his car to the end of the lap. Button did do the fastest sector in S2, but as Jenson hadn't set any flying laps prior there is no ability to actually penalise Button.

Timo Glock has been flown to hospital - it's the left leg that has been injured.

23 minutes late, Q3 finally starts.

Unbelievable. Kovalainen has thrown it in to the wall now, and it's ANOTHER red flag!

If Button and Barrichello do pick up a penalty then we could have a similar grid layout to 05 with 2 Brawns ands a Red bull at the backRacky_rules

Problem is, you can't exactly penalise the Brawns - they have to have set a personal best for themselves in the affected sector to be penalised - and neither had a flying sector before that.

Drivers summoned by Stewards for ignoring yellows

At least five drivers have been summoned to appear before the stewards and may face penalties for ignoring yellow flags during Saturday's qualifying session at Suzuka.

Sebastien Buemi scraped his Toro Rosso down the barriers, deposited debris across the exit of the famous Spoon Curve and bringing out yellow flags at the end of the second qualifying session.

However, it was apparent that some drivers - most notably the two Brawns driven by Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello - set competitive sectors through the yellow flag zone.

Fernando Alonso, who did not subsequently make it through to the decisive Q3 phase, said he backed off, and was immediately making his view clear. "I think everybody was improving their times. I backed off. Other people didn't. We'll see what happens this afternoon," the Spaniard is quoted as saying by the BBC.

It is believed that Alonso and both BMWs, despite Nick Heidfeld lifting his arm as he drove past the yellows, were similarly summoned by the stewards.

SOURCE: F1-Live.com

Liuzzi to get five-place grid penalty

Vitantonio Liuzzi will have a five-place grid penalty for the Japanese Grand Prix, after having a gearbox replaced ahead of qualifying.

The Force India driver struggled with his car in Saturday's morning free practice session and the team decided to change his gearbox.

Under F1's regulations, it means Liuzzi must take a five-place penalty for the race.

AUTOSPORT

QUALIFYING

Pos  Driver       Team                       Q1        Q2        Q3      
 1.  Vettel       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:30.883  1:30.341  1:32.160
 2.  Trulli       Toyota                (B)  1:31.063  1:30.737  1:32.220
 3.  Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:30.917  1:30.627  1:32.395
 4.  Sutil        Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:31.386  1:31.222  1:32.466
 5.  Barrichello  Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  1:31.272  1:31.055  1:32.660
 6.  Heidfeld     BMW-Sauber            (B)  1:31.501  1:31.260  1:32.945
 7.  Button       Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  1:31.041  1:30.880  1:32.962
 8.  Raikkonen    Ferrari               (B)  1:31.228  1:31.052  1:32.980
 9.  Kovalainen   McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:31.499  1:31.223
10.  Buemi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:31.196  1:31.103 
11.  Rosberg      Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:31.286  1:31.482
12.  Alonso       Renault               (B)  1:31.401  1:31.638
13.  Kubica       BMW-Sauber            (B)  1:31.417  1:32.341
14.  Glock        Toyota                (B)  1:31.550
15.  Alguersuari  Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:31.571
16.  Fisichella   Ferrari               (B)  1:31.704
17.  Nakajima     Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:31.718
18.  Grosjean     Renault               (B)  1:32.073
19.  Liuzzi       Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:32.087
20.  Webber       Red Bull-Renault      (B)

AUTOSPORT

Jenson Button, Rubens Barrichello, Fernando Alonso, Adrian Sutil and Sebastien Buemi have all been given 5 place grid penalties. The first 4 for not lifting off sufficiently where Buemi crashed, and uemi for dangerous driving, of which he was also given a reprimand. In fact, with Kovalainen also changing his gearox and Glock needing a new chassis, 9 of the 20 drivers have been penalised. Here's the new grid with all the panalties applied:

Pos Driver Team
1. Vettel Red Bull-Renault
2. Trulli Toyota
3. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes
4. Heidfeld BMW-Sauber
5. Raikkonen Ferrari
6. Rosberg Williams-Toyota
7. Kubica BMW-Sauber
8. Sutil Force India-Mercedes *
9. Barrichello Brawn-Mercedes *
10. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari
11. Button Brawn-Mercedes *
12. Fisichella Ferrari
13. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes **
14. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari *
15. Nakajima Williams-Toyota
16. Grosjean Renault
17. Alonso Renault *
18. Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes **
19. Glock Toyota ***
20. Webber Red Bull-Renault ***

* Five-place grid penalty
** Five-place grid penalty for changing gearbox
*** Will use new chassis so will start from the pitlane

POST QUALIFYING CAR WEIGHTS - JAPAN

Pos  Driver                             Weight (kg)
 1.  Vettel       Red Bull-Renault       658.5
 2.  Trulli       Toyota                 655.5
 3.  Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes       656.0
 4.  Sutil        Force India-Mercedes   650.0
 5.  Barrichello  Brawn-Mercedes         660.5
 6.  Heidfeld     BMW-Sauber             660.0
 7.  Button       Brawn-Mercedes         658.5
 8.  Raikkonen    Ferrari                661.0
 9.  Kovalainen   McLaren-Mercedes       675.0
10.  Buemi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari     665.4*
11.  Rosberg      Williams-Toyota        684.5*
12.  Alonso       Renault                689.5*
13.  Kubica       BMW-Sauber             686.0*
14.  Glock        Toyota                 -
15.  Alguersuari  Toro Rosso-Ferrari     682.5*
16.  Fisichella   Ferrari                661.5*
17.  Nakajima     Williams-Toyota        695.7*
18.  Grosjean     Renault                691.8*
19.  Liuzzi       Force India-Mercedes   682.5*
20.  Webber       Red Bull-Renault       -

* declared weight

AUTOSPORT 

...Apart from that, The rulebooks say what they say so I think we can't really argue with the stewards decision... and yea... Wait? Did I actually just say that!? kipi19

Today, a miracle has been seen.

Where has Button gone, Barrichello with a slightly heavier car gets a better grid position, albeit they had penalties, its still a bit strange, Button I think is maybe being too cautious and not giving it 100%, =/kipi19

and plus I think they only did one run for Q3 

Final grid to be published on Sunday

A definitive grid for the Japanese Grand Prix will be issued prior to the race on Sunday morning.

Title rivals Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button, Force India's Adrian Sutil and Renault's Fernando Alonso have all been given five-place penalties for failing to slow sufficiently under yellow flags for Sebastien Buemi's accident in Q2. The Toro Rosso driver was also penalised for dragging his damaged car back to the pits.

Although provisional grids have been circulated, a firm decision on the starting order has yet to be made, as the positions will depend on the order in which penalties are applied - with the regulations stating that "grid position penalties will be applied to the drivers in question in the order the offences were committed."

Mark Webber and Timo Glock will have to start from the pitlane having changed chassis after today's accidents, while Tonio Liuzzi had already received a five place penalty prior to qualifying due to a gearbox change.

AUTOSPORT

wow - carnage. I watched the re-run of the qualifying as I didn't fancy the early start, and was totally unprepared for what I saw. I had no idea why Webber wasn't running as that wasn't covered until the end of the show.

I think it's a fairly safe bet to say that we will see the safety car tomorrow, quite possibly more than once, and given the number of red flags in qualifying we may well see the race being stopped and restarted. While the weather during practice was out of control of the circuit, this certainly isn't strengthening the case for F1 to continue using the circuit when more modern circuits with much larger run off areas are competing to get into the calendar.

It's hard to keep track of all the penalties that have been handed out, as it seems almost half the field has some penalty, and only about the top 3 qualifiers are unaffected.

I think my biggest hope for tomorrow's race is not for one person to win, but for everyone to complete the race safely.

Chances are slim, but even so...

Timo Glock will not be racing today, but is confident he can return for Brazil. As with those who chose Massa in Hungary, those with Glock will instantly lose 5 points. The final grid has been published and - somehow - Rubens Barrichello only lost 1 place through his penalty, whereas Jenson Button lost three. Here is the official starting grid:

Pos  Driver                             Weight (kg)
1.  Vettel       Red Bull-Renault       658.5  
2.  Trulli       Toyota                 655.5  
3.  Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes       656.0  
4.  Heidfeld     BMW-Sauber             660.0  
5.  Raikkonen    Ferrari                661.0  
6.  Barrichello  Brawn-Mercedes         660.5 *  
7.  Rosberg      Williams-Toyota        684.5  
8.  Sutil        Force India-Mercedes   650.0 *  
9.  Kubica       BMW-Sauber             686.0 
10.  Button       Brawn-Mercedes         658.5 * 
11.  Kovalainen   McLaren-Mercedes       675.0 ** 
12.  Alguersuari  Toro Rosso-Ferrari     682.5 
13.  Buemi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari     665.4 * 
14.  Fisichella   Ferrari                661.5 
15.  Nakajima     Williams-Toyota        695.7 
16.  Alonso       Renault                689.5 * 
17.  Grosjean     Renault                691.8 
18.  Liuzzi       Force India-Mercedes   682.5 ** 
19.  Webber       Red Bull-Renault       -     *** 
20.  Glock        Toyota                 -     ****  

*    Five-place grid penalty 
**   Five-place grid penalty for changing gearbox 
***  New chassis so will start from the pitlane 
**** Will not start due to injury 

Good thing Kobiyashi completed some running in free practise, I think that allows Toyota to put him the car if I remember the rules correctly.KimisApprentice

Nope - Glock started qualifying, hence no 2nd Toyota.

According to Jenson Button, Rosberg set his personal best sector under the yellow flags for Alguersuari's crash, and is adament Nico will be penalised. If this is the case, Brawn GP will be crowned the Constructors Champion.

UPDATE: Steward's announcement should come within the next hour. During the F1 Forum, Rosberg was seen heading to the Steward's room which suggests he has a case to answer.

NO ACTION TAKEN ON ROSBERG INCIDENT

The Japanese Grand Prix stewards have decided Nico Rosberg did not deserve a penalty and so the Constructors' Championship is still up for grabs.

Rosberg and Williams technical director Sam Michael were summoned by the stewards after the race following claims from Jenson Button that the German had set his best sector time during the safety car period.

Button reckoned he could have beaten the German had he been slower and the Briton expected Rosberg to be penalised.

A penalty would have given Button's Brawn team the title, as it needs just 0.5 points to clinch it and both the Briton and team-mate Rubens Barrichello would have moved up a position.

The stewards, however, deemed Rosberg had done nothing wrong.

"The Race Director reported to the Stewards that Car No 16, Nico Rosberg exceeded the time delta from when the 'Safety Deployed' message was displayed until crossing the Safety Car line," a statement from the FIA said.

"The Stewards met with the drivers and the team representatives and considered the telemetry data, GPS records, timekeeping and video evidence. This evidence showed a 'low fuel' message on the drivers display had overridden the time delta information preventing the driver from being able to accurately follow the timing information.

"However the telemetry data shows that the driver from a safety point of view had reacted adequately to the yellow flags and safety car boards. In view of this the stewards intend to take no further action."

AUTOSPORT

PROVISIONAL RACE RESULTS

The Japanese Grand Prix
Mount Fuji, Japan;
67 laps; 305.416km;mjk1

:lol: