Sebastian Vettel (1st):
“What a race! We already had pole position and strategy-wise we were the favourites, but, you know - first of all you have to do the start! We were pretty confident that we could defend our position, as we’ve had good starts in the past, but it was closer than I thought it would be! Going into Turn One, I suddenly saw a silver arrow on my left-hand side, but I had the inside line so it was my advantage. After that I put my head down and tried to push with every single lap. The car was fantastic and I was able to create a gap quite quickly. We were two laps longer than Lewis and a lap longer than Jarno in the first stint, so it all worked out and I was pretty much in control of the race. After we fitted the soft tyres for the last stint, I wanted to have a little bit of fun. I did one very quick lap (I think a 32.5), but then my engineer came on the radio and said ‘watch your tyres, there might be a safety car or something’ and two laps later there was the safety car! It’s not what you want when you’re in the lead, but I was still taking care of my tyres and had a good restart. I had a bit of a cushion with Grosjean behind me and then three or four laps to build a gap again that was enough to win the race. Finally, we made it! Fantastic. I was screaming with happiness on the radio at the end of the race. The last couple of races have been a bit up and down, sometimes we had pace and sometimes not, but finally we made it. It’s good to be back in first position on Sunday. A huge thanks to all the team and everyone at Red Bull for this.”
Jarno Trulli (2nd):
“Standing on the podium in the team’s home Grand Prix is a fantastic feeling and this great result is down to the whole team; the engineers, mechanics and everyone, including Timo. We work really well together as part of a great team and it’s a pity he wasn’t able to race today. The car, with the new package, has been really competitive all weekend and I knew the start was likely to be the toughest point of the race. We made a strong start and I almost held my position, but Lewis got by and after that I spent the whole race fighting with him. I closed the gap and just focused on doing qualifying laps every time; it was fantastic fun and I really enjoyed it. It was not easy to push so hard but I kept fighting and after the first pit stops I was again chasing Lewis really closely. It was just a matter of putting as much pressure on as possible and, thanks to the team for the strategy and fast pit work, we got him at the last stop. From then on I pulled away and it was reasonably comfortable, even with the safety car at the end. I want to thank the team; we came here after Timo’s great second place in Singapore and again the car was competitive immediately. I really hoped to win but this was the maximum we could achieve and I am extremely happy to be on the podium in Japan.”
Lewis Hamilton (3rd):
“I tried to get past both Jarno and Sebastian at the start. But I couldn’t quite manage to get into the lead. It was a good scrap with Jarno - we were really battling, setting qualifying times as we tried to shave tenths off each other’s laps - but, over the race distance, my car couldn’t quite match his. As I exited the pits after my second stop, I lost time with a gearbox problem, which meant I coasted about 100 metres down the pit lane - that cost me about a second. To be honest, it wasn’t a surprise to be jumped by Jarno at the final stops - we needed every tenth to make the gap up to three seconds and we couldn’t quite make it.When we were behind the Safety Car, I asked the team if they could get the KERS working again so that I could shoot past Jarno, but they couldn’t do it and I wasn’t close enough to get in his slipstream at the restart.”
Kimi Raikkonen (4th):
“Today the car wasn’t bad, but it was not quick enough to fight for the podium. This fourth place is useful in terms of keeping the team in third place in the constructors’ championship, but it will be hard to hang onto it over the final two races. I will definitely do everything I can though. I was unable to make up places at the start, especially as the first corner is not that far from the start line and so I was unable to make the most of the KERS. In the first stint, when I was on hard tyres, the situation was a bit difficult, but then, once on the softs, things improved considerably. I managed to close on Heidfeld and pass him at the pit stop, even though, coming away from my stop, I found myself in traffic behind Button. Then there was not much to fight for to the end of the race.”
Nico Rosberg (5th):
“That was the best I could do today for sure. The car wasn’t as quick as we wanted it to be but we got the best out of it. I had a really good strategy which helped deliver this result. It was a tough race so overall I’m pleased.”
Nick Heidfeld (6th):
“Today was not our lucky day. I’m very disappointed with this result. Fourth place was within reach but several things went wrong today, especially at the second pit stop when the rear right wheel nut got stuck. But certainly I don’t want to complain. These things can happen and normally we have very good pit stops. That was when I lost a position to Kimi, and I rejoined the race just behind him. When the safety car came out I lost another position to Nico, who was lucky to refuel while the safety car was out.”
Rubens Barrichello (7th):
“Qualifying proved crucial for my weekend as it put me ahead of Jenson for the race and I was able to make up a point on him. I struggled with the set-up today and wasn’t able to get the best from the car which is a shame. I was able to follow Kimi (Raikkonen) when we were both running on primes in the first stint but once he switched to options, he gained a lot of time on me. We would have finished in sixth place without the safety car and that’s the best that I could have hoped for today. It’s frustrating but that’s the way racing goes and the most important thing is that I gained a point on Jenson this weekend. I’m looking forward to my home race in Sao Paulo in two weeks. The Brazilian Grand Prix is always a very special occasion for me and I’ll be giving it my all there to do as well as possible for the championship.”
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