Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel won the Japanese GP from team-mate Mark Webber but must wait to seal his fourth title. Vettel has an 90-point lead over Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso with only 100 still available and is almost certain to seal it at the next race in India.
The German, who started second behind Webber, slipped to third at the start as Romain Grosjean catapulted into the lead from fourth on the grid. Vettel took advantage of the perfect two-stop strategy to get ahead of Grosjean.
Behind the leaders, Alonso had started eighth and moved up to sixth behind team-mate Felipe Massa at the start. But he was able to pass Massa into Turn One on lap 26 after the Brazilian had cost himself time by going defensive into the chicane.
Nico Hulkenberg held on to fourth through the second pit stops, but Alonso dropped back four seconds or so to conserve his tyres and then came back at the German later in the stint and passed him into Turn One on lap 46. That left Hulkenberg to fend off Raikkonen, but the Finn finally took fifth pace with a move around the outside into the chicane with just two laps to go.
Hulkenberg’s team-mate Esteban Gutierrez scored his first F1 points with seventh to underline Sauber’s rise in form in the second half of the season.
Pos Driver Team Time 1. Sebatian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1h37.410s 2. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault +7.1s 3. Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault +9.9s 4. Fernando Alonso Ferrari +45.6s 5. Kimi Raikkonen Lotus-Renault +47.3s 6. Nico Hulkenberg Sauber-Ferrari +51.6s 7. Esteban Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari +1m11.6s 8. Nico Rosberg Mercedes +1m12.0s 9. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes +1m20.8s 10. Felipe Massa Ferrari +1m29.2s 11. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes +1m38.5s 12. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari +1 lap 13. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari +1 lap 14. Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes +1 lap 15. Sergio Perez McLaren-Mercedes +1 lap 16. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault +1 lap 17. Valtteri Bottas Williams-Renault +1 lap 18. Charlies Pic Caterham-Renault +1 lap 19. Max Chilton Marussia-Cosworth +1 lap