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2015 FORMULA 1 JAPANESE GRAND PRIX




Suzuka
Lap length 5.807km (3.608 miles)
Race laps 53
Race distance 307.471km (191.054 miles)
Pole position Left-hand side of the track
Lap record* 1’31.540 (228.372 kph) by Kimi Raikkonen, 2005
Fastest lap 1’28.954 (235.011 kph) by Michael Schumacher, 2006
Maximum speed 314kph (195.11 mph)
DRS zone/s (race) Pit straight
Distance from grid to turn one 545m

Schedule
Friday 25th September 2015
Japanese Grand Prix Free Practice 1: 10:00-11:30 (UK time: 2:00-3:30)
Japanese Grand Prix Free Practice 2: 14:00-15:30 (UK time: 6:00-7:30)
Saturday 26th September 2015
Japanese Grand Prix Free Practice 3: 12:00-13:00 (UK time: 4:00-5:00)
Japanese Grand Prix Qualifying: 15:00 (UK time: 7:00)
Sunday 27th September 2015
Japanese Grand Prix: 14:00 (UK time: 6:00)

Previous Winners
2014 United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton Mercedes Suzuka
2013 Germany Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault
2012 Germany Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault
2011 United Kingdom Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes
2010 Germany Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault
2009 Germany Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault
2008 Spain Fernando Alonso Renault Fuji
2007 United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes Fuji
2006 Spain Fernando Alonso Renault Suzuka
2005 Finland Kimi Räikkönen McLaren-Mercedes
2004 Germany Michael Schumacher Ferrari
2003 Brazil Rubens Barrichello Ferrari
2002 Germany Michael Schumacher Ferrari
2001 Germany Michael Schumacher Ferrari
2000 Germany Michael Schumacher Ferrari


Schumacher on board 2010


Alesi on board 1995


Facts and Figures from the last race

Ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix the possibility Lewis Hamilton might match his hero Ayrton Senna’s career statistics of 41 wins from 161 starts became a focal point.

There was so much anticipation about this potential aligning of the stars it was almost bound not to happen. Instead Sebastian Vettel took the victory – and by doing so became only the third driver in the history of Formula One to win more races than the great Brazilian three-times champion: Michael Schumacher (91), Alain Prost (51), Sebastian Vettel (42), Ayrton Senna (41)

Astonishingly, Vettel is not yet halfway towards Michael Schumacher’s record. Asked after the race if he could ever think of reaching the record, Vettel admitted “Prost’s is in sight” but doubted he could emulate Schumacher.

Vettel’s third win of the year means he has now scored as many victories as Nico Rosberg this season. He also took his first pole position since 2013, the 46th of his career.

This was Ferrari’s first pole position since the 2012 German Grand Prix, ending a 60-race long streak for them without starting from the front. This was the longest pole drought in their history – one more than their 59-race race run without a pole between the 1990 Portuguese and 1994 German Grands Prix, though that covered a longer time period.

Singapore kept up its record of seeing the Safety Car appear at least once in every race it has held, which helped Vettel lead the race from start to finish. This has only happened twice this year and it occurred in the last two races, Hamilton having done so in Italy.

However Vettel narrowly failed to claim a ‘grand slam’ as he was beaten to the fastest lap of the race by Daniel Ricciardo. The Red Bull driver set a 1’50.041 on the 52nd lap which Vettel came within 0.028s of on his next tour, but was unable to beat.

Vettel did sustain his streak of top-two finishes in Singapore, however: this was his sixth in a row.

One of the two Safety Car appearances in Singapore was caused by someone wandering onto the track. Curiously, two other instances of the same thing happening at Hockenheim in 2000 and Silverstone in 2003 also resulted in wins for Ferrari.

Mercedes’ mystifying loss of pace meant several of their success streaks were halted. Their run of 23 consecutive pole positions came to an end one shy of the all-time record held by Williams. However they did establish a new record for most consecutive pole positions for an engine manufacturer: 31, beating Renault’s previous record of 24 (they powered all those Williams pole positions).

Hamilton failed to get an eighth consecutive pole which would have tied Senna’s record. He was off the front row for the first time in 20 races, which is the second-longest streak of all time, again behind Senna who managed four more.

Hamilton’s retirement meant he failed to score points for the first time in 19 races. That’s his best-ever run of points scores but is eight shy of Kimi Raikkonen’s record of 27. This also means there are now no drivers who have completed every racing lap this year: Vettel has the most with 789.

Finally, Alexander Rossi became the first American driver to start an F1 race since Scott Speed in the 2007 European Grand Prix. Following that race Speed lost his place in the team to …..Sebastian Vettel.

Current Standings

Thank you Kev for the intro page. Dedication is always appreciated.
All the chatter about Lewis and the myriad of excuses for the failure in Singapore. I just about choked when I listened to everyone claim that Mercedes didn't have enough time to dial in their cars. Doesn't Mercedes get the same amount of time as everyone else? Maybe they believe that they should have more, just because.
Mercedes told us in Singapore that they were putting in new, improved engines for the Singapore race. Toto said that they might not be great for the rest of this season but that they were working towards next season already.
Somebody screwed the pooch at Merc.
Next we have Japan, a completely different circuit from Singapore and we have Merc going back to the old engines. free practices, such as they were, showed us that Merc was back to the old form and no one else had improved that much.
I wonder what either of the Torro Rosso boys would do in a Merc powered car?
And finally my usual complaint about Sky F1: I turn off the sound for most of the race. Laserboy and Crofty are ludicrous.