Vettel Is First Back-to-Back Winner

Sebastian Vettel led from start to finish to become to the first driver to win back-to-back races this year. The win means he closes the gap on Fernando Alonso to just four points after the Ferrari crashed out on the first corner, with only five races remaining. It wasn't all bad news for the Prancing Horses though, Felipe Massa managed to get his first podium finish in 33 races with a well earned second place. Kamui Kobayashi staved off a late charge from Jenson Button to become the first Japanese driver to finish on a podium in Suzuka since 1990.

Before the race, Nico Hulkenberg and Button had received five place penalties for gearbox changes and ultimately managed to witness a very eventful first corner. It began with Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen, the Ferrari looked to stay ahead of the Renault before having a rear wheel clipped, Alonso then went off the track before spinning back onto the track facing the wrong way. That caused others to look on cautiously, that included Romain Grosjean who was too busy looking at that incident to notice he was about to crash into Mark Webber, fortunately both cars managed to continue before the Frenchman was given a ten second stop-go penalty on lap seven for causing the collision. Nico Rosberg would also end up in the wars during that first corner when he was contacted by Bruno Senna and was forced to retire, Senna belatedly received a drive through penalty on lap-21 for also causing a collision.

With all that carnage, the Safety Car had to be deployed and the field already looked interesting; Kobayashi had made it to second, Button third, Massa fourth and Timo Glock had got his Marussia up to 11th. The Safety Car went in on lap two and Sergio Perez immediately battled with Raikkonen which nearly ended up in tears. The Lotus forced the Sauber off of the track when otherwise there would have been contact and possibly two further retirements.

Following that, Perez continued to have an eventful race by overtaking his, what will be, McLaren predecessor, Lewis Hamilton, on lap six with a great move diving inside the Englishman. After the first set of pit stops, Massa had come out into second on lap-18 and that's where he would remain until the chequered flag. Perez's race was then over a lap later when he tried to re-overtake Hamilton, but this time he was too eager and was again forced off where he span and beached the car in the gravel.

Narain Karthikeyan would retire on lap-34 from the back of the pack before Charles Pic suffered an engine failure and joined the HRT six laps later. Vitaly Petrov was also a naughty boy, and received a drive through penalty for ignoring blue flags on lap-48. The final retirement was Romain Grosjean who boxed the car on the final lap. Race result:

1.Vettel (Red Bull), 2.Massa (Ferrari), 3.Kobayashi (Sauber), 4.Button (McLaren), 5.Hamilton (McLaren), 6.Raikkonen (Lotus), 7.Hulkenberg (Force India), 8.Maldonado (Williams), 9.Webber (Red Bull), 10.Ricciardo (Toro Rosso), 11.Schumacher (Mercedes), 12.Di Resta (Force India), 13.Vergne (Toro Rosso), 14.Senna (Williams), 15.Kovalainen (Caterham), 16.Glock (Marussia), 17.Petrov (Caterham), 18.De La Rosa (HRT) DNF: Alonso (Ferrari), Rosberg (Mercedes), Perez (Sauber), Karthikeyan (HRT), Pic (Marussia), Grosjean (Lotus).