2007 Japanese Grand Prix

The 2007 Japanese Grand Prix was the fifteenth race of the 2007 Formula One season. It was held on 30 September at the recently revised Fuji Speedway, Oyama, Shizuoka, in very heavy rain and misty conditions. For 20 years the Japanese Grand Prix was held at Suzuka, but in 2007 it returned to Fuji for the first time since 1977. Pole position, the fastest lap and the race itself were all won by Lewis Hamilton, who extended his lead in the championship to 12 points with 2 races remaining.

Pre-race

Lewis Hamilton of McLaren led the Drivers' Championship by only 2 points from team-mate Fernando Alonso, who was a further 11 points ahead of Ferrari's Kimi Räikkönen.

After McLaren's exclusion from the Constructors' Championship, Ferrari had been confirmed as Constructors' Champions, following their Belgian Grand Prix one-two. They were 71 points ahead of BMW Sauber.

Three Japanese constructors and two Japanese drivers competed in the race. Toyota were 6th in the Constructors' Championship, whilst Honda were 8th, behind their own "B-team" Super Aguri. Takuma Sato was 15th in the Drivers' Championship for Super Aguri, whilst compatriot Sakon Yamamoto had yet to score for Spyker F1, having debuted at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Race Summary

Due to torrential rainfall, the race was started under the safety car, which led the field for the first 19 laps. The Ferraris of Kimi Räikkönen and Felipe Massa were forced to pit during the first few laps after starting on standard wet tyres, as opposed to "extreme wet" tyres, which were a requirement in the treacherously wet conditions. Ferrari boss Jean Todt later stated that the team were not informed about the requirements prior to the race, although all other teams were.

The Ferraris dropped back to 20th and 21st positions respectively following the pitstops, and Massa pitted again on lap 15. When the safety car finally left the circuit, the two McLarens began the race proper at the head of the field, in front of a quick-starting Sebastian Vettel. The Toro Rosso driver had clinched 3rd place from Nick Heidfeld, after the latter collided with Jenson Button's Honda. Mark Webber reached 4th place during the first racing lap as a result of the collision. A first-corner spin caused Alexander Wurz to collide heavily with Felipe Massa's Ferrari. Wurz's car sustained heavy damage and he retired on the spot.

Later in the race, Fernando Alonso crashed out. The reigning World Champion blamed aquaplaning for the accident, which once again brought out the safety car. During this safety car period on lap 45, third-placed Sebastian Vettel collided with second-placed Webber in the wet conditions. This collision put Heikki Kovalainen's Renault in 2nd place, which he managed to hold until the end of the race, despite repeated overtaking attempts by Kimi Räikkönen. The Ferrari driver would eventually finish third, ahead of David Coulthard in fourth for Red Bull Racing.

On the final lap, Felipe Massa prevailed in a spectacular battle with BMW driver Robert Kubica. The Pole had previously served a drive through penalty for colliding with Hamilton. Massa finished 6th, and Kubica 7th, behind Giancarlo Fisichella's Renault. Vitantonio Liuzzi finished in 8th, scoring the first 2007 championship points for Toro Rosso. However, these points were later removed when Liuzzi was penalised for overtaking Adrian Sutil under waved yellow flags. This promoted Sutil to 8th, giving him and the Spyker team their first F1 points.

Post-race

Following the race, Sebastian Vettel was facing a 10-place penalty for the next race in Shanghai, China, for causing the collision with Mark Webber which put both drivers out of the race, but this punishment was reduced to a reprimand. When new evidence was presented to the FIA, it began an investigation of Lewis Hamilton for dangerous driving and causing the collision himself. Hamilton was leading the race right in front of Webber, before suddenly braking and forcing Webber to follow suit lest he be penalised for overtaking behind the safety car; the collision occurred when Vettel's car ran into the back of Webber. Hamilton might have faced either disqualification or a grid penalty for the next race, but the FIA decided not to impose any penalty.

Problems with the Circuit

The event had a lot of problems such as the paralysis of the transportation network provided by the shuttle buses, poor facilities including some reserved seats without a view, lack of organization, and expensive meals that meant a simple lunch-box was sold for 10,000 yen (US$87) at the circuit.

Transportation

The free practice session on Saturday was abandoned due to the fog, which grounded the Medical Helicopter, after repeated delays. Only three drivers set a time in four minutes: Alexander Wurz (Williams-Toyota), Nico Rosberg (Williams-Toyota) and Jarno Trulli (Toyota).

Before the race, there were suggestions that the plan of carrying all of the 100,000 spectators or more only by shuttle bus would be impossible. To relieve people's doubts, the circuit was said that there was complete preparation for the race. These doubts were realised when, after the qualifying session on Saturday, the shuttle buses could not leave because the road on the east gate of the circuit sank around 16:00. As a result, approximately 20,000 spectators were forced to stay for four hours or more until 21:00. As for the race on Sunday only the shuttle bus was admitted for spectators as transport.

Refund

On Sunday morning, the circuit announced that they would refund spectators who had bought seats in the reserved seat area on 'C' stand, near the first corner. This was due to the low visibility which meant that the cars on the racing line were not seen at all. The cost of the tickets, 50,000 yen (US$435), was scheduled to be reimbursed to 7,000 people who were in the stand. The total cost of the refund is expected to be around 350 million yen (US$3 million). After the race on Sunday, the circuit held the press conference to apologise for problems and announced that they would refund another 85 spectators who did not arrive at the circuit until after the start of the race, at 13:30, due to the delay of the shuttle bus. The circuit said that they would reimburse them for all the costs caused by watching the race: the transportation expenses, hotel charges and the cost of the tickets etc.

Toyota bias

The circuit, Fuji Speedway, prohibited the spectators from setting up the flags and banners to support the teams and drivers, with the exception of the Toyota F1 team whose owner also owned the circuit. Therefore, there were very few flags and banners in the event compared with other Grand Prix events. After the event, Japanese media people, like Jun Imamiya, a Fuji TV F1 commentator, and Tetsuo Tsugawa, a Fuji TV F1 commentator and a former mechanic for Benetton Formula (now Renault), criticised the organization of the circuit. Tsugawa mentioned:

…Although I have worked in Formula One for thirty years, this is the first time I have seen a Grand Prix race without seeing fans wave the flag of Ferrari. I think this is inexcusable. What I heard was Fuji Speedway prohibited flags and banners of F1 teams, but I saw a Toyota F1 flag in the stands of the Toyota-owned circuit.
The track later said the flags were not prohibited, but there was a miscommunication between the race organisers and the staff of the circuit. However, many fans familiar with Formula One noticed the strangeness of the circuit without the team banners. Why was this not solved on initial notice? (kaizen) …

On the other hand, there was a high evaluation by the visitors of the paddock. Though there were a lot of problems and the Grand Prix was criticized very much during the event, the Team Principal of Toyota F1, Tadashi Yamashina praised the event:

…I would like to say congratulations to Fuji Speedway for hosting this race for the first time in 30 years. The facilities here are excellent and the race was well organised.

Lawsuit

On 16 June 2008, 109 spectators went to Tokyo District Court and took an action against the circuit to claim total 32 million yen (US$295,500) in compensation for the bad health and missing the race by transportation problem of the shuttle buses.

Classification

Qualifying

Lewis Hamilton of McLaren-Mercedes started from pole ahead of team-mate Fernando Alonso. He is the second man to qualify on pole in F1 at Fuji after Mario Andretti in 1976 and 1977. For the third consecutive race, both positions on the front row were occupied by team-mates. 6th place is Jenson Button's best qualifying position of the year and his best since the 2006 Chinese Grand Prix for Honda. Sebastian Vettel's 8th position is Scuderia Toro Rosso's best ever qualifying position, although higher positions had been attained by the team in its previous guise of Minardi. Qualifying was run on a wet track, although no rain was falling. all drivers used Wet tyres.

Pos	Name	Team/Engine	Part 1	Part 2	Part 3
1	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1:25.489	1:24.753	1:25.368
2	Fernando Alonso	McLaren-Mercedes	1:25.379	1:24.806	1:25.438
3	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:25.390	1:24.988	1:25.516
4	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:25.359	1:25.049	1:25.765
5	Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	1:25.971	1:25.248	1:26.505
6	Jenson Button	Honda	1:26.614	1:25.454	1:26.913
7	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	1:25.970	1:25.535	1:26.914
8	Sebastian Vettel	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1:26.025	1:25.909	1:26.973
9	Robert Kubica	BMW Sauber	1:26.300	1:25.530	1:27.225
10	Giancarlo Fisichella	Renault	1:26.909	1:26.033
11	Heikki Kovalainen	Renault	1:27.223	1:26.232
12	David Coulthard	Red Bull-Renault	1:26.904	1:26.247
13	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	1:26.711	1:26.253
14	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1:27.234	1:26.948
15	Ralf Schumacher	Toyota	1:27.191	no time†
16	Nico Rosberg‡	Williams-Toyota	1:26.579	1:25.816	1:26.728
17	Rubens Barrichello	Honda	1:27.323
18	Alexander Wurz	Williams-Toyota	1:27.454
19	Anthony Davidson	Super Aguri-Honda	1:27.564
20	Adrian Sutil	Spyker-Ferrari	1:28.628
21	Takuma Sato	Super Aguri-Honda	1:28.762
22	Sakon Yamamoto	Spyker-Ferrari	1:29.668

• † Ralf Schumacher had no car during the second session of qualifying as he crashed into the back of Sakon Yamamoto at the end of the first session.
• ‡ During Friday morning practice, Williams decided to change Nico Rosberg's engine, giving him a 10-place grid penalty for the race.

Race

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	2	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	67	2:00:34.579	1	10
2	4	Heikki Kovalainen	Renault	67	+8.377 secs	11	8
3	6	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	67	+9.478 secs	3	6
4	14	David Coulthard	Red Bull-Renault	67	+20.297 secs	12	5
5	3	Giancarlo Fisichella	Renault	67	+38.864 secs	10	4
6	5	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	67	+49.042 secs	4	3
7	10	Robert Kubica	BMW Sauber	67	+49.285 secs	9	2
8	20	Adrian Sutil	Spyker-Ferrari	67	+1:00.129 secs	20	1
9	18	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	67	+1:20.622 secs	14
10	8	Rubens Barrichello	Honda	67	+1:28.342 secs	17
11	7	Jenson Button	Honda	66	Suspension	6
12	21	Sakon Yamamoto	Spyker-Ferrari	66	+1 lap	22
13	12	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	66	+1 lap	13
14	9	Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	65	Technical	5
15	22	Takuma Sato	Super Aguri-Honda	65	Collision	21
Ret	11	Ralf Schumacher	Toyota	55	Puncture	15
Ret	23	Anthony Davidson	Super Aguri-Honda	54	Throttle	19
Ret	16	Nico Rosberg	Williams-Toyota	49	Electronics	16
Ret	19	Sebastian Vettel	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	46	Collision	8
Ret	15	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	45	Collision	7
Ret	1	Fernando Alonso	McLaren-Mercedes	41	Accident	2
Ret	17	Alexander Wurz	Williams-Toyota	19	Collision	18

• Vitantonio Liuzzi handed 25 second penalty after overtaking under yellow-flags.

Notes

• Lap leaders: Lewis Hamilton 55 (1–28 & 41–67), Sebastian Vettel 3 (29–31), Mark Webber 5 (32–36), Heikki Kovalainen 3 (37–39) and Giancarlo Fisichella 1 (40).
• On Sunday, the safety car led the race for the first 19 laps (about 40 minutes) due to torrential rainfall on the racetrack. After the race, a lot of drivers criticized the decisions to continue this situation and start the race in bad conditions.
• During the initial Safety Car period, the FIA instructed the lapped car of Vitantonio Liuzzi to pass the field and catch up to the back of the queue as quickly as he safely could, as a way of gauging whether the track was ready for the race to begin.
• Mark Webber, who was still suffering from the after-effects of food poisoning, vomited in his helmet during the first safety car period.
• David Coulthard changed his helmet design for this race, choosing to use the helmet design of the late Colin McRae as a tribute to his recently deceased friend.
• This is the first time two Finnish drivers have been on the podium at the same time, Heikki Kovalainen finishing 2nd and Kimi Räikkönen finishing 3rd.
• The result was Adrian Sutil's first point, and Spyker F1's only point (as they were bought out by Force India after this season).
• McLaren were not awarded constructors points or a trophy on the podium.
• Heikki Kovalainen achieved his first podium at this race. This was also Renault's only podium of the season.
• Sebastian Vettel became the youngest ever driver to lead a lap of a Formula One race.
• This was the first retirement of the season for a McLaren.

External links

• Detailed Japanese Grand Prix results

References