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THE DAVID COULTHARD MUSEUM

Japan

About fifteen laps into the race I was thinking to myself who’s idea was it to have a Grand Prix at the Fuji Speedway? He deserves to be shot. At the end of the race I was thinking who’s idea was it to have a Grand Prix at the Fuji Speedway? He deserves a medal! Like at the Nurburgring earlier this year the rain at Fuji provided the F1 world with an incredibly entertaining race. Before this race Fernando Alonso appeared to have a slight advantage over Lewis Hamilton but after a bit of luck and an incredibly mature drive from the young Brit has turned the championship round back into Lewis’ favour. It was not just the Brit who was the talking point of the race, so many other thing happened it was hard to keep (on) track. Treacherous conditions allowed overtaking, collisions, continuous battles and differing strategies ensured that Fuji impressed on its return to the F1 calendar after thirty years.
After a last gasp effort in the rain hit qualifying session Lewis Hamilton had a physical and perhaps even more importantly psychological advantage over team-mate and fierce rival Fernando Alonso. Ferrari were left to pick up the pieces with Kimi Raikkonen third and Felipe Massa in fourth. They were followed by the impressive German , Nick Heidfeld in fifth. There were some surprises in the top ten of the grid such as Jenson Button securing Honda’s best grid result of the season in sixth place and Sebastian Vettel securing Scuderia Toro Rosso’s best ever qualifying position in eighth. The build-up to the race itself was a signal of what was to come. Many doubts were cast over whether the race should have been started or not with numerous teams and drivers calling for the race to be delayed or abandoned. However, the race was started under the Safety Car as a compromise.

As the field got away from the grid behind Bernd Maylander in the Safety Car it was clear visibility was next to none. Throughout the opening ten laps many drivers were calling for the race to be delayed with Jarno Trulli radioing back he very nearly hit David Coulthard even at such a low speed. It wasn’t just the controversy of the race being stopped that dominated the opening laps. On lap 2 Felipe Massa in his Ferrari spun off under braking and slipped behind Nick Heidfeld. On closer inspection it shows that Ferrari disobeyed the orders of FIA Race Director Charlie Whiting who demanded all cars started on the full wet (extreme wet) tyres decided to start on the Intermediate (wet) tyres. They did this because they gambled that by the time the Safety Car would have come in then a drier line would have emerged on track and then they would be on the optimum tyres. On laps two and three respectively both Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Mass pitted to change onto the full wet tyres.
On lap 12 Vitantonio Liuzzi took an unscheduled pit stop in his Scuderia Toro Rosso. Being at the back the Italian had nothing to lose and so the Red-Bull junior team took the decision to bring Liuzzi in and fill up his car with fuel to last until 75% of the race distance had passed. They predicted ( albeit, wrongly) that the Safety Car may stay out for the entirety of the race. However, for full race points to be awarded then the race must 75% completed or else half points are awarded. So if those drivers at the back pitted nearer the beginning of the race then they would be able to rejoin onto the back of the Safety Car train, not have to pit again and as a result when the drivers at the front took their pit-stops those from the back would be able to go straight up and take the point paying positions. Sakon Yamamoto was next to adopt this strategy followed by the two Ferraris, Alex Wurz in the Williams and finally Trulli, Rubens Barrichello and Takuma Sato on lap 18. Sadly for Felipe Massa, however on the same lap he visited the pits for the third time that afternoon. After overtaking Nick Heidfeld during the Safety Car period he was given a drive-through penalty and dropped right to the back.

Those drivers that adopted the fuel up early approach were then scampered by lap 19. Two laps previously The lapped Liuzzi had been allowed to un-lap himself of all drivers, the Safety Car and then take up his place at the back of the train of F1 cars. When Liuzzi came through to complete his lap time when free of the Safety Car he delivered a fairly competitive lap-time and by lap 19 Whiting had decided it was safe enough to go racing. So on lap 20 of 67 racing finally got underway at Fuji for the first time in over 30 years. After the two Ferraris eventful starts Hick Heidfeld was immediately promoted up into third place but ran into difficulties at turn one as it was every man for himself behind Hamilton and Alonso. Replays showed that Jenson Button misjudged his braking point into turn one and went hurtling into the side of the German’s BMW Sauber. Heidfeld dropped down into tenth as a result and Button had his front wing knocked off. Near the back of the field Wurz lost control of Williams long before the corner and side-swiped the Ferrari of Massa. The Austrian lost front wing and broke his suspension putting his dismal weekend to bed earlier than it should have. Massa’s race just seemed to get worse as he once again was at the back and would have to work his way back up again.

Japanese pit-crews were busy early on into the restart with both Super Aguri and Honda having work to do. In an unseen incident Takuma Sato had damaged the nosecone of his car and the front wing slid under his front wheels. He pitted at lap 22 but all did not go well. His mechanic felt that with all the rain and wind of Sunday Takuma did need a little bit of warming up. Some of the fuel leaked out at the back of the Super aguri car and of course within in seconds Sato was alight. The dampness of Fuji helped him to cool off and return safety to the race. Even more miraculous was the first few (racing) laps for Jenson Button. After tangling with Nick Heidfeld at the first corner Button was lacking front down force with no front wing. Nothing unusual about that, however he continued on for another five laps like this! Even in wet condition when you’d think that down force would be of the highest importance Button lapped consistently well. Only on lap 23 did the Brit start to drop down the order and was eventually 11th when he pitted.
By lap 27 it was time for the two-stoppers at the front of the field to pit. Fernando Alonso was the first to pit emphasising the pace of his team-mate on Saturday. Crucially when Alonso exited the pit-lane he ended up behind the train formed behind Giancarlo Fisichella consisting of Kovaleinen, Kubica and Coulthard. However when Hamilton left the pits he was marginally in front of this train giving him the time and the space to pull away from his team-mate. With both of the McLarens now out of sync with the rest of the drivers German rookie, Sebastian Vettel was no leading for the first time in his career followed by Red Bull-mate, Mark Webber. Massa continued to struggle through the race as both he and Nico Rosberg had separate spins off at turn one.
After the first four leading laps of his career Sebastian Vettel had to pit on lap 32 promoting Webber in the Red Bull into first place. Behind the leader it was all action with Kovaleinen being heavily involved. Within one lap the Finn had gone from being hounded by David Coulthard to passing Robert Kubica for fourth. It wasn’t all bad news for BMW as only a lap later Nick Heidfeld moved up the inside of Fernando Alonso promoting the German up into seventh place. On the same lap the other McLaren was in trouble. As Hamilton was on the outside of the track trying to search for a better line Kubica saw an opportunity for an overtaking move up the inside of the corner. However half-way through the corner his BMW under steered straight into the McLaren of Hamilton. This put the Brit on the back foot and was passed by Fisichella and Coulthard. The McLarens were hitting rock bottom as Alonso was also involved in a spin with Sebastian Vettel at turn one.

By lap 40 the rain started to come down harder over the Fuji circuit and as had happened all weekend when more rain hit the circuit the Ferraris began to struggle. Raikkonen who had fought a spirited comeback was until the rain hit heavier in sixth place. Raikkonen pitted his Ferrari again on lap 40 showing that even when they pitted the car earlier on it would not have completed 75% of the race (roughly 51 laps). Jenson Button became opportunistic under the harder conditions and successfully passed Jarno Trulli for 19th. A shame for the Brit who if he had not come together with Nick Heidfeld then he may have been challenging for the podium at that point. Another driver struggling was Kubica who received a drive through penalty for the earlier incident with Hamilton. It appeared to me that Kubica was fairly helpless during the incident and simply slid off due to the amount of standing water making it an unavoidable accident. However, he was punished and had all hopes of a podium place washed away.
Merely a few laps later and the 2007 Formula One World Championship was all but decided in one fell swoop. On the exit of turn five, from what the replays showed, Alonso appeared to losw the rear end of the car and smashed it heavily into the barrier. Thankfully, he walked away unscathed but knew that if the results stayed the same way then his team-mate and bitter rival would have all but won this year’s championship. His car ended up resting right in the centre of the track meaning the safety car had to be deployed. It took six laps to clear up the mess left by Alonso’s McLaren, however even at these slow speeds it’s possible to make big mistakes. According to Sebastian Vettel, Hamilton two places ahead of him in first started to slow and the German’s attention was momentarily distracted. He had his mind off the ball long enough for him to forget about Mark Webber in front of him in second. The young gun crashed straight into the back of the Australian taking both out of the race. Webber was unsurprisingly livid brandishing Vettel a ‘stupid kid’.
Usually the end of races settle down as drivers try to conserve their cars and engines just to hold position to the end, this was not the case in Fuji. On lap 55 Anthony Davidson’s uneventful race came to a premature end as he spun and suffered to much damage to continue. At the front Kimi Raikkonen put an excellent move on David Coulthard going round the outside of the Scot taking fourth place at turn five. His team-mate pitted for fuel two laps later promoting Kimi up into third keeping some sort of championship hope alive. Up until lap 61 it appeared as though an assuming drive for Rubens Barrichello was about to reward him with his first points of the season, however on lap 61 he pitted for fuel and dropped to tenth. After the prolonged Safety Car period the race time was approaching two hours. In the FIA rules after a fixed distance or two hours the race must end. For the first time in years the lap counter was converted into a timer till the end of the race. At the pace being set at about lap 60 means it was going to touch and go whether or not the race distance would be completed. Even the final lap was not free of drama and excitement. Kovaleinen and Raikkonen were trading places through the last lap but the rookie held out beat his compatriot to second place to Lewis Hamilton. David Coulthard drove solidly to fourth, as did Giancarlo Fisichella into fifth. I don’t think I’ve ever seem 6th place and three points fought over so much until I saw the battle between Kubica and Massa.
In a battle that was worthy of Gilles Villeneuve and Rene Arnoux in Dijon 1979 Massa and Kubica were muscling past each other both on and off track. Thanks to the tarmac run off areas Massa was able to go off the circuit itself and still get Kubica in sixth. Liuzzi managed to salvage something for Sucderia Toro Rosso in eighth. However after the race Liuzzi was deemed to have passed Adrian Sutil under waved yellow flags near the end of the race and was punished with an extra 25 seconds. Therefore Sutil was promoted into eighth scoring Spyker and his very first point.
An extremely mature drive from Lewis silences the few critics he still has left. True, he had an easier ride without the spray a lot of the time, however, he was still very deserving of the win and now is clearly deserving of the championship. Raikkonen’s third place and Alonso’s DNF increased his chances of now becoming the very first rookie Formula One World Champion. Massa is now out and the only way a Ferrari can win the drivers championship is through two Raikkonen wins and two Hamilton DNFs.