Japanese GP Round up

By Naomi Willemsen
October 9 2006

A promising weekend for Toyota ended up in an increase of 5 points in the WCC. As the championship between Fernando Alonso and Michael Schumacher continued. Ferrari was having a nightmare when Schumacher got his engine blown up. Fernando having 126 points he has an advantage of 10 points to Michael with one race to go.

Toyota started the weekend very confident knowing they could end in the points. And translated that on a 3rd place from Ralf and a 4th place for Jarno in the qualification. Both drivers were happy with their cars and looking forward to a successful race. As soon as the lights went out Felipe Massa had a good start with Michael Schumacher on his tail. Also Ralf had a good start and kept up with the two Ferrari’s for a while. Jarno fell back to the 5th position after a very close overtaking by Fernando in inside of the first corner. Nonetheless after overtaking Jarno, Fernando was very close to Ralf’s Toyota. As Fernando was gaining in onto Ralf, the Toyota driver ran a little wide in the hairpin, but had no further consequences. While in front of them brother Michael takes the lead from Massa over the end of the main straight. Honda’s Rubens Barichello was less lucky and had to go to the pits for a new nose and tires, because he collided with Heidfeld after blocking his tires. After chasing Jenson Button for four laps long Fisichella finally manages to take back his 6th place from him. He, now, come’s closer and closer to Jarno, but not close enough to make a move. Ralf was holding back Alonso for a long time when Fernando makes a small mistake before ‘bridge’. He loses much ground to Jarno. Jarno even tries to overtake Alonso but unfortunately he holds him off. It became obvious that Fernando kept losing time to race leader Michael Schumacher in the second sector of the circuit. This means he had slightly more downforce than the Ferrari. Twelve laps went by and it was time for Jarno to enter the pits for fuel and new tires. With this pitstop Jarno ended up in 9th place. Not short after Jarno, Ralf came into the pits, together with Massa, from the 4th place as he had been overtaken by Alonso in the first corner. Both Ralf’s and Jarno’s fuel loads were good for about 17 laps which meant they were in for a long second stint. Michael Schumacher was still leading the race in front of Fernando Alonso and Giancarlo Fisichella after his 1st pitstop. Räikkönen silently worked his way up to 4th place after a disappointing 11th time in qualification. Everything seemed to go well during the race until SpykerMF1’s Chrisitjan Albers crashes, after a failure of the left-rear suspension, which took his rear wing with it. Obviously his race was over. The question was if the safetycar would turn up as there was still some debris on the track. The question was soon answered when the safetycar didn’t come outside. In the pitlane the Toyota crew was getting ready for the second series of pitstops. Jarno was the first of the two to go in for some fuel. As soon as they were finished with Jarno, Ralf came into the pits the next round. Everything went solid and Jarno managed to get in front of Ralf on 7th and 8th place. Robert Kubica who wasn’t having an easy race got into more trouble when he got much oversteer and ended up with a spin. He got off-road and nearly hit the tires, but was able to correct himself and continued the race. As the end of the race approached the unthinkable happened. One lap after Michael’s pitstop his engine suddenly blows up. This would mean zero points for the Ferrari driver this Grand Prix. Fernando Alonso takes the lead from him and wins the race in front of Massa and Gian Carlo Fisichella. Having Michael retired gives the result that Fernando Alonso leads the drivers championship again with an advantage of 10 points over Schumacher. Will Alonso win the championship or will we get some big surprises at the last Grand Prix of this season? Somewhere else on the circuit Jarno and Ralf are driving their race and focusing on coming home with those points. Jarno was becomming slower than Ralf and he finally got stuck behind him. Ralf would later explain that he wouldn’t want to take the risk of getting them both out of the race after an overtaking. They both maintained their 6th and 7th place and crossed the finish line with a total of five points for the Toyota.These five points made the gap between Toyota and BMW smaller with only one point difference. After having these race results Toyota will be looking for more at the Brazilian Grand Prix as the last race of the 2006 calendar.