** 2004 F1 GP at Suzuka ** Updated after Race

[sameerrao]

Race results
1 Michael Schumacher Ferrari Winner
2 Ralf Schumacher Williams-BMW +14.0 secs
3 Jenson Button BAR-Honda +19.6 secs
4 Takuma Sato BAR-Honda +31.7 secs
5 Fernando Alonso Renault +37.7 secs
6 Kimi Räikkönen McLaren-Mercedes +39.3 secs
7 Juan Pablo Montoya Williams-BMW +55.3 secs
8 Giancarlo Fisichella Sauber-Petronas +56.2 secs
9 Felipe Massa Sauber-Petronas +89.6 secs
10 Jacques Villeneuve Renault +1 Lap
11 Jarno Trulli Toyota +1 Lap
12 Christian Klien Jaguar-Cosworth +1 Lap
13 Nick Heidfeld Jordan-Ford +1 Lap
14 Olivier Panis Toyota +2 Lap
15 Timo Glock Jordan-Ford +2 Lap
16 Gianmaria Bruni Minardi-Cosworth +3 Lap
Ret Zsolt Baumgartner Minardi-Cosworth +12 Lap
Ret David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes +15 Lap
Ret Rubens Barrichello Ferrari +15 Lap
Ret Mark Webber Jaguar-Cosworth +33 Laps

Sadly the rain led off for the race. It was bright sunshine throughout. The race was sort of boring in my mind as I expected a wet race with a lot of unpredictable things happening. Instead we had the top 4 qualifiers finish in the top four spots with only Jenson leapfrogging Sato.

Kimi's poor pace in qualifying is now clear that it was due to going for a 2 stop as compared to Coulthard who was on a three stopper. He had a quiet unremarkable race and finished in the points. The same could be said about Alonso who apart from overtaking JV was never seen again on TV.

Coulthard was once again caught up in an accident - this time with Rubens who was on a charge back from 15th on the grid. They collided together somewhere but this wasn't seen on camera.

This race had the worst TV coverage I have ever seen - frequent loss of television feed and an inept TV drirector who would switch cameras just as a pass was occuring to show the pits where the team guys were loafing about waiting for a car to pit in. This happened at least three times and we missed watching the pass live.

Another race where the two people I consider as mobile chicanes proved themselves as such - refering to Jarno Trulli and Jacques Villenueve. Villeneuve particularly was really off the pace and headed backwards. Trulli also headed backwards pretty quickly.

Mark Webber lost out a couple places at the start itself - thereafter he kept falling backwards - he eventually retired on lap 20. Not sure why.


F1 Qualifying
1 Michael Schumacher Ferrari 1:33.542
2 Ralf Schumacher Williams-BMW 1:34.032
3 Mark Webber Jaguar-Cosworth 1:34.571
4 Takuma Sato BAR-Honda 1:34.897
5 Jenson Button BAR-Honda 1:35.157
6 Jarno Trulli Toyota 1:35.213
7 Giancarlo Fisichella Sauber-Petronas 1:36.136
8 David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 1:36.156
9 Jacques Villeneuve Renault 1:36.274
10 Olivier Panis Toyota 1:36.420
11 Fernando Alonso Renault 1:36.663
12 Kimi Räikkönen McLaren-Mercedes 1:36.820
13 Juan Pablo Montoya Williams-BMW 1:37.653
14 Christian Klien Jaguar-Cosworth 1:38.258
15 Rubens Barrichello Ferrari 1:38.637
16 Nick Heidfeld Jordan-Ford 1:41.953
17 Timo Glock Jordan-Ford 1:43.533
18 Gianmaria Bruni Minardi-Cosworth 1:48.069
19 Zsolt Baumgartner Minardi-Cosworth
20 Felipe Massa Sauber-Petronas

This time instead of copying comments I thought I will give my take of the session:
Sameer's Comments:
It was a damp track that was drying towards the end. In the pre-qualifying, Jarno Trulli was on pole and must have been on fumes then because he was nowhere near the pole during the actual qualifying sessions. Apart from Trulli, the top 4 in pre-qualifying landed up holding the top spots in final qualifying.

Qualifying was particularly interesting in the first half as some qualifed on intermediates and others on slicks. The circuit was dry in Turn One and the back straight up to the Casio chicane. It was wet in the S curves and exiting the hairpin and in the Casio chicane as well as the curve heading into the straight. Therefore it was a mixed bag that the drivers inherited. Montoya was second out in actual qualifying and chose slicks - he was awesome to watch - with the car stepping out at several places. Even so he qualified 10 seconds faster than Bruni who went before him. The next few runners were on intermediates but couldnt beat Monty.

Then Alonso went out on slicks and banged in lap nearly a second quicker. By then the circuit was visibly drying and the track started to improve a lot. The next few runners started all banging quicker laps and times started to tumble pretty quickly. Villeneuve impressed with a lap much faster than Alonso. Raikkonen was strangely unimpressive - his car was snaking quite a bit and looked a lot less stable than Coulthard who pulled in a 0.7sec quicker lap.

Barrichello did a Schumacher and muffed up at the Casio chicane. Till then he looked set for P2 behind Alonso (who was on pole at that time). He lost control and went off onto the grass and ended up in 15th spot - disappointing for sure. Actually he was snaking at that particular spot in the warm up lap and should have exercised more caution on his actual qually lap.

As for BAR, Jenson was smooth as silk (as ever) and did a great lap and was on provisional pole when Sato went out - Sato was true to self a little wild but ended up 0.3 faster than Jenson. The BAR team was celebrating mildly when Button got on prov pole but erupted when Sato beat him. Poor Jenson can do a convincing Rodney Dangerfield ("I get no respect") for sure

Ralf was very smooth thru the entire lap .. he braked a little late into the chicane but didnt lose much time there. In fact his slides were almost perfect in that the car slid into the perfect entry spot into the second part of the chicane. Difficult to explain but easy to understand if you see his lap. He was 3.6 secs quicker than Monty who faced a much wetter lap.

Michael was inch perfect throughout the lap - he headed Ralf by 0.3 seconds in sector 1 and then only by 0.007 in sector 2 - he nailed the chicane prefectly and pulled out 0.3 seconds ahead by the end. Retribution for the china in Spades.

Trulli's pre-qual performance of course flattered to deceive and he ended up in P6 - but that was 1.2 secs faster than Panis - so shows Toyota were right in putting him in the car in 2004 itself.

So this was Michael's 63rd Pole (2 short of the immortal Senna) and much awaited. I for one theough Senna's record will be beaten this year but it is not to be ... it will be next year for sure...

Two instinctive drivers and ones who are not that bothered with setup lost out heavily here - refering to Raikkonen and Montoya. Montoya was done in by his pre-qualifying and has been off the pace throughout. The way I see it in a normal race weekend Montoya starts off worse than Ralf and then steadily improves in session and out-qualifies Ralf eventually. This is because he must be using Ralf's setup data to improve his car. This time thanks to torrential rains none of the drivers could improve their setups in the practice sessions - thus Montoya was left with perhaps the same setup as Friday morning - he must have a lot of work to do in the race. As for Raikkonnen - he also benefits from Dc's experience in setups but may have suffered to a lesser extent the same problem. I am basing this on the comments made by the Speed Channel commentators



----------------------------------------------------------------------------------



And now to one of the best current circuits in the world Suzuka in Japan

Circuit History - courtesy Pitpass

Japan wanted a Grand Prix as its fan-base became enormous, and everyone wanted Japan to have a Grand Prix because there were potential sponsors and engine-builders there, but nobody wanted to race at Fuji. The answer was Suzuka, which had been designed by John Hugenholtz as a test track for Honda. Because it had been designed as a test track, it had a wide range of corners over its 3.641 miles and it also had a feature unique to Grand Prix circuits, a crossover.

Suzuka was first used for a World Championship race in 1987 and has ever since hosted the Japanese Grand Prix. It has frequently seen the Chmapionship decider, never more dramatically than in 1989, when Prost suckered Senna and then drove into him, or in 1990 when Senna rammed Prost out of the race at very high speed on the first corner. Japan, after all, is the home of kamikaze.

Circuit map

Circuit has everything fast straights, fast corners, hairpins, S curves... one of the best anywhere

Overtaking spots:
Casino triangle chicane (after 130R) and into First curve.

Weather
Wet during practice. Wet during the rest of the weekend. Rumour that the race is in jeopardy due to weather thanks to the likelihood of a typhoon hitting Japan

2003 Results
Race Results
1 Rubens Barrichello
2 Kimi Raikkonen
3 David Coulthard
4 Jenson Button
5 Jarno Trulli
6 Takuma Sato
7 Cristiano da Matta
8 Michael Schumacher

2004 Friday Practice times
Practice 1
Friday first practice times from Suzuka
1 M.SCHUMACHER Ferrari 1m47.906s
2 FISICHELLA Sauber 1m48.362s
3 BARRICHELLO Ferrari 1m49.846s
4 BUTTON BAR 1m49.937s
5 HEIDFELD Jordan 1m51.438s
6 RAIKKONEN McLaren 1m51.530s
7 GLOCK Jordan 1m52.602s
8 MONTOYA Williams 1m53.517s
9 DOORNBOS Jordan 1m53.603s
10 ALONSO Renault 1m54.012s
11 LEINDERS Minardi 1m55.455s
12 R.SCHUMACHER Williams 1m55.632s
13 VILLENEUVE Renault 1m57.547s
14 TRULLI Toyota 1m58.351s
15 DAVIDSON BAR 2m00.712s
16 BRUNI Minardi 2m02.825s
17 BAUMGARTNER Minardi 2m03.955s
--> Bridgestones wets and intermediates had a clear advantage over Michelins - something like 3-4 sec a lap. Rain being a great leveler as well as capable of mixing up results resulted in Heidfeld in P5 and Fisi in P2...

FP2
1 Michael Schumacher Ferrari 1:45.388
2 Giancarlo Fisichella Sauber-Petronas 1:46.102
3 Kimi Räikkönen McLaren-Mercedes 1:46.749
4 Rubens Barrichello Ferrari 1:46.874
5 David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 1:48.033
6 Timo Glock Jordan-Ford 1:49.277
7 Nick Heidfeld Jordan-Ford 1:49.286
8 Takuma Sato BAR-Honda 1:49.370
9 Anthony Davidson BAR-Honda 1:49.598
10 Jacques Villeneuve Renault 1:49.672
11 Fernando Alonso Renault 1:49.712
12 Ralf Schumacher Williams-BMW 1:49.736
13 Juan Pablo Montoya Williams-BMW 1:50.060
14 Jarno Trulli Toyota 1:50.386
15 Mark Webber Jaguar-Cosworth 1:50.666
16 Robert Doornbos Jordan-Ford 1:51.007
17 Christian Klien Jaguar-Cosworth 1:52.232
18 Bas Leinders Minardi-Cosworth 1:52.942
19 Gianmaria Bruni Minardi-Cosworth 1:53.194
20 Jenson Button BAR-Honda 1:53.482
21 Zsolt Baumgartner Minardi-Cosworth 1:54.703
22 Felipe Massa Sauber-Petronas
23 Olivier Panis Toyota
24 Bjorn Wirdheim Jaguar-Cosworth
25 Ryan Briscoe Toyota