F1 2012 - Mercedes AMG GP Japanese Grand Prix Race Results: Schumacher finishes 11th and Rosberg fails to finish

[Scourge82]

Mercedes AMG F1 had a busy week. They announced the signing of Mclaren's Lewis Hamilton to a 3 year contract starting next year worth at least 60 million pounds. A few days later, Schumacher announced his retirement from F1 at the end of the season. On race weekend the team struggled. Both drivers failed to make it into the top 10 qualifying. Schumacher started 23rd because of a 10 place grid penalty from Singapore and Nico Rosberg started 13th.

Past races in Japan always have had race incidents that bring out the safety car and this year it was different. At the race start while entering the first corner, Alonso make a move to the left and clips the rear tire into Raikkonen's front wing. Alonso blows his tire and spins out causing confusion. Going into turn 2 Williams's Senna hits Rosberg knocking him out of the race. Grosjean continued his first lap incidents by taking Webber out. Unlike Rosberg, Webber was able to keep his car going. Grosjean would later be hit by a 10 second stop and go penalty. The harshest penalty a driver can receive during the race.

Michael Schumacher managed to avoid all the collisions and managed to climb up to 16th by the time the safety car was out. through out the race, he passed other drivers with ease and with 5 laps to go began a battle with Torro Rosso's Riccardo to claim 10th place. Riccardo managed to stay ahead to claim the final point, leaving Schumacher to finish 11th, just outside the points.

Pole Sitter and race winner Sebastian Vettel maintained constant control of the race and was never threatened. With this win, he is now only 4 points behind Alonso in the championship. Ferrari's Massa showed the car's pace and finished in 2nd place after starting in 10 place. The home town favourite, Kamui Kobayashi in his Sauber Ferrari kept Jenson button at bay and finish 3rd and celebrate a podium finish in his home race.

Full Race Results
After 53 of 53 laps

#Position	Driver		Team
Fastest lap: S Vettel 1:35.774 on lap 52
1	Germany	S Vettel	Red Bull
2	Brazil	F Massa	Ferrari
3	Japan	K Kobayashi	Sauber
4	Great Britain	J Button	McLaren
5	Great Britain	L Hamilton	McLaren
6	Finland	K Raikkonen	Lotus
7	Germany	N Hulkenberg	Force India
8	Venezuela	P Maldonado	Williams
9	Australia	M Webber	Red Bull
10	Australia	D Ricciardo	Toro Rosso
11	Germany	M Schumacher	Mercedes
12	Great Britain	P Di Resta	Force India
13	France	J Vergne	Toro Rosso
14	Brazil	B Senna	Williams
15	Finland	H Kovalainen	Caterham
16	Germany	T Glock	Marussia
17	Russian Federation	V Petrov	Caterham
18	Spain	P de la Rosa	HRT
19	France	R Grosjean (ret.)	Lotus
20	France	C Pic (ret.)	Marussia
21	India	N Karthikeyan (ret.)	HRT
22	Mexico	S Perez (ret.)	Sauber
23	Spain	F Alonso (ret.)	Ferrari
24	Germany	N Rosberg (ret.)	Mercedes

Team & Driver Quotes

Nico Rosberg felt he had a

“good start to the race but unfortunately it ended fairly quickly today. In the first corner Grosjean spun into Webber and that also led to my accident.

I began to brake but Senna crashed into me from behind which destroyed my rear tyre and meant that I had to retire.

It’s a shame as I felt very comfortable with my car on the installation lap, and I was confident that we could score some decent points. I’ll now hope for a better weekend in Korea.”

Michael Schumacher:

"I have mixed feelings after the race here in Japan, because it's obviously unfortunate to come so close to scoring points and not manage it, after a race which went better than we expected. In the final laps, I had a nice and interesting battle with Ricciardo, but in the end I couldn't get past him because the Toro Rosso was so quick on the straights. That's why we have to say we couldn't have got much more out of it today. Now let's see how things go in Korea."

For Ross Brawn:

“Michael drove a strong race, and it’s a shame that he didn’t get some points for his efforts.

However starting from 23rd on the grid made that just too much of a challenge, despite a very good strategy and encouraging pace from the car in the lower temperatures.

The accident which caused Nico’s retirement was a great shame as the car was in good shape and he could have scored decent points if he hadn’t been taken out. There were some encouraging signs in the race and we will take heart from that as we continue to work on improving the car.

Norbert Haug had this to say

“A good performance and a good drive from Michael during the race. The race saw us posting good lap times for the first time this weekend - and Michael setting the sixth fastest lap time around three-quarters of the way through the race.

After starting P23 following his ten-place grid penalty, Michael came home in P11, chasing the car ahead during the last seven laps. He caught him quickly, setting better lap times in the final stint, but in the end he unfortunately could not overtake to score the last available point.

Nico was eliminated during the first corner crash through no fault of his own, so no points today for him or our team. We are now looking forward to the race next weekend in Korea

.

[DavidV]

Schumi missed out to score his singe point on the last lap when he was retaken by Ricciardo.
Button came close to 3rd place, but it was fun to see Kobayashi on the podium and the crowd going wild.
There was noone out there able to threathen Vettel at all today.
Again Grosjean was a racewrecker. Maldonado this time drove an invisible but solid race. Maybe he has learned something after all...

[Sticky]

Posted on the front page, great work as usual.

Why has Rosberg been having such terrible luck lately?

[Scourge82]

Rosberg was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Alonso and Raikkonen started a chain reaction the caused the first corner confusion. and Rosberg spunout when he straightened the car out he got hit from the rear by Senna.