Formula One

2007 Japanese Grand Prix - Fuji

Season 2, Episode 15, Aired 9/30/07

Episode Summary

Lewis Hamilton won the 2007 Japanese Grand Prix with his team McLaren. Finishing second was Kovalainen for Renault, with Ferrari’s Kimi Räikkönen coming home in third position.

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Cast & Crew

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James Allen (2)

Race Commentator
Louise Goodman

Pit Reporter
Mark Blundell

Formula One analyst

Fan Episode Reviews (1)

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This was the race where the championship arrived to its end. Following Lewis Hamilton's win and Fernando Alonso not taking any points, now all Hamilton needs to do to win the Championship is to finish above Alonso.moreless

6.2

"Fair"

By kawadge, Oct 01, 2007 Report Abuse

This was the race where the championship arrived to its end. Following Lewis Hamilton's win and Fernando Alonso not taking any points, now all Hamilton needs to do to win the Championship is to finish above Alonso.

It was a very rainy race, where the first 19 laps were done behind the safety car. A lot of mistakes happened, like Ferrari's decision not to use fully wet tyres, or Vettel running into Webber with the safety car in.

But this race will be remembered for Hamilton's win which puts him a whisker away from being the first Formula 1 rookie champion as well as the youngest ever champion, beating the record held by his arch rival Fernando Alonso.moreless

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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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Trivia
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- A return to Fuji The Japanese Grand Prix returns to Fuji for the first time in 30 years in 2007, bringing to an end Suzuka's 20-year unbroken sequence of races. The renamed Fuji Speedway was given the nod to replace Suzuka and its ageing facilities from this year, although the 1970s layout has been significantly tamed following a multi-million dollar upgrade in recent years. Edit
- Redevelopment of the circuit Toyota took over the circuit in Autumn 2000 and over the next few years set about bringing the historic venue up to modern-day F1 standards. Major redevelopment began in 2003, with the circuit undergoing a substantial re-profiling by F1's favoured circuit designer Hermann Tilke. A number of new chicanes towards the end of the lap were added, with the revised circuit now having 16 corners and measuring 2.835 miles. The 2007 race will run to 60 laps. Edit
- Circuit details The circuit received its first makeover in '76, with the track direction changing to clockwise and a new downhill right-hand first corner ensuring the F1 cars bypassed the super-fast, and dangerous, banking. Edit
Notes
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- Ferrari's Kimi Räikkönen insisted that his team was not informed about the race control directive that demanded the whole field started on full wet tyres behind the safety car. Both Ferraris began the Japanese Grand Prix on intermediates, so had to come in and change to Bridgestone's extreme wet rubber during the first safety car period – consequently falling from third and fourth to the tail of the field. Edit
- Heikki Kovalainen took the first podium of his F1 career at the 2007 Japanese Grand Prix, finishing second. The position also marked Renault's first podium for the season. Edit
- After an appeal from Spyker, stewards ruled that Tonio Liuzzi, who finished eighth on the road, had illegally passed Adrian Sutil under a yellow flag on lap 55 of the Japanese GP. Consequently they added 25 seconds to Liuzzi's race time, which promoted Sutil to eighth and meant it was Spyker, rather than Toro Rosso, that scored its first point of the season and moved into ninth in the constructors' standings. Update: Scuderia Toro Rosso notified stewards that it intended to appeal the penalty imposed on Vitantonio Liuzzi after the Japanese Grand Prix. Edit
Quotes
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- Lewis Hamilton: (on winning the Japanese GP) A very eventful race and I am so happy to have won here at Fuji. There were moments when I thought it would have been better to stop the race; however, when the rain faded a little, conditions improved a bit. I didn't feel too much pressure and think I would have been able to push a bit harder if necessary. I was lucky that nothing serious happened to my car when Robert Kubica hit me. I didn't see him come so the impact caught me by surprise, and I spun. Afterwards I stayed concentrated and focused on keeping the car on the track. I want to say thank you to everybody in the team who have done a great job throughout the weekend. This was an important victory for the championship, but I do not want to think too much about it and will focus hard on the Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai next weekend. Edit
- Heikki Kovalainen: (on finishing 2nd in the 2007 Japanese GP) It has been a rollercoaster year for me, and it was like that again this weekend. We took a risk with the set-up yesterday, hoping for better conditions and when we got up this morning and saw the rain falling, we didn't expect to have a fantastic afternoon. But it just goes to show that no matter how bad you think the situation is, you never give up. The strategy worked perfectly today, and the team deserves at least one podium today! Everybody has asked me about the last few laps with Kimi, but my mirrors had steamed up completely and I couldn't see him. I was watching the pit-board though, and every lap the gap was coming down, so I knew he would try something. He got past me into turn 6 on the final lap, but I wanted P2 so much that I went back round the outside on the way down to turn 10. The car was aquaplaning all over the place, but I kept my foot in and got back ahead, hoping I wouldn't lose the car. It is a fantastic feeling to score my first podium. Now, we need to try and maintain the momentum in Shanghai. Edit
- Kimi Räikkönen: (on finishing 3rd in the 2007 Japanese GP) We raced with virtually zero visibility. The hardest thing to work out was where the other drivers were and what they were doing. My race was ruined by the enforced pit stop on lap three. We had chosen to start on standard rain tyres but we will never know now if this decision would have paid off. Once I was back at the pack we tried our best to move back up. All in all, third place is not a result to complain about. I did a lot of overtaking always in very difficult conditions. Our set up might have been more competitive in the dry, but all the same the car was very quick and I certainly didn't lose any time because of this choice. Clearly the situation in the championship is now much more difficult, but I will still give it my all right to the end of the season as usual. Edit
Allusions
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- 2007 Japanese Grand Prix results (67 laps) 1. HAMILTON McLaren 2h00m34.579s 2. KOVALAINEN Renault +8.4s 3. RAIKKONEN Ferrari +9.5s 4. COULTHARD Red Bull +20.3s 5. FISICHELLA Renault +38.9s 6. MASSA Ferrari +49.0s 7. KUBICA BMW +49.3s 8. SUTIL Spyker +1m00.1s* 9. LIUZZI Toro Rosso +1m20.6s* 10. BARRICHELLO Honda +1m28.3s 11. BUTTON Honda +1 lap 12. YAMAMOTO Spyker +1 lap 13. TRULLI Toyota +1 lap 14. HEIDFELD BMW +2 laps 15. SATO Super Aguri +2 laps Did not finish R. SCHUMACHER Toyota +12 laps R. DAVIDSON Super Aguri +13 laps R. ROSBERG Williams +18 laps R. VETTEL Toro Rosso +21 laps R. WEBBER Red Bull +22 laps R. ALONSO McLaren +26 laps R. WURZ Williams +48 laps Fastest lap: HAMILTON 1m28.193s (lap 27) * Liuzzi given 25s penalty, promoting Sutil to 8th Edit
- Starting grid for the 2007 Japanese Grand Prix 1. HAMILTON McLaren 2. ALONSO McLaren 3. RAIKKONEN Ferrari 4. MASSA Ferrari 5. HEIDFELD BMW 6. BUTTON Honda 7. WEBBER Red Bull 8. VETTEL Toro Rosso 9. KUBICA BMW 10. FISICHELLA Renault 11. KOVALAINEN Renault 12. COULTHARD Red Bull 13. TRULLI Toyota 14. LIUZZI Toro Rosso 15. SCHUMACHER Toyota 16. ROSBERG Williams* 17. BARRICHELLO Honda 18. WURZ Williams 19. DAVIDSON Super Aguri 20. SUTIL Spyker 21. SATO Super Aguri 22. YAMAMOTO Spyker * after 10-place engine change penalty Edit
- 2007 Japanese GP - Free Practice 3 Results Practice abandoned due to weather conditions. Edit