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Lucky 13 for Schumacher
Posted Sunday, October 10, 2004
Schumacher celebrates his 13 win of the season.
RacingOne Report

Michael Schumacher dominated the 53-lap Japanese Grand Prix to take a relatively easy win from Ralf Schumacher and Jenson Button. Starting from Pole Position, Schumacher was never challenged for the lead and 85-minutes later, the 2004 Champion was on his victory lap having beaten Ralf Schumacher to the checkered flag by 14 seconds and recorded his 13th win of the season.

The start of the race saw Ralf Schumacher shadow his older Brother closely, but soon the BMW Williams driver was unable to match the Ferrari star’s pace. Running a three stop strategy, Ralf Schumacher was able to fend off the BAR Honda of Jenson Button, who made just two stops to take the runner up position and his first podium position since Magny Cours last year.

Button led home Takuma Sato in third place, his tenth podium position of the season, five-seconds behind Ralf Schumacher. For BAR Honda, the result effectively gives the team the runner up position in the Constructors’ Championship. For the thousands of Japanese fans at Suzuka, they will be disappointed to see Sato lose out to Button, but running a three-stop strategy, Sato was unable to find the raw-pace to make it pay.

Fernando Alonso started the race back in 11th position and kept his nose clean to finish in fifth position for Renault, making up positions thanks to the two-stop strategy.

Kimi Raikkonen has a relatively quiet race to finish in sixth position for McLaren while team-mate David Coulthard found himself battling with Barrichello for position until contact between the two racers ended with both drivers retiring. After qualifying back in 15th place, Barrichello admitted he pushed hard in the race and it seems he may have taken one risk too many.

Juan Pablo Montoya finished in a distant seventh position to pick up two points for BMW Williams while Giancarlo Fisichella finished in eighth position to bring Sauber the final point. Team-mate Felipe Massa drove a strong race to finish ninth in the second Sauber.

Jacques Villeneuve suffered another difficult race, finishing a lap adrift in tenth position. The former Champion was drafted into help Renault score points in the final three races of the year. With two races gone, Villeneuve has yet to show any real pace in race conditions. The only consolation for Renault and Villeneuve was that they beat the Toyota of Jarno Trulli.

Making his race debut with Toyota, Trulli ran strongly early on in the race after starting from sixth position. The second half of the race saw Trulli lose pace in the Toyota – until the final lap of the race that is when he recorded his fastest lap of the day. For Toyota and Trulli, 11th position behind the struggling Jacques Villeneuve is not a good result on home soil.

Christian Klien finished 12th for Jaguar Racing while team-mate Mark Webber slid backwards from third position on the grid to ninth in the opening laps, before retiring the R5 with what seems to have been an excess of heat building up in the cockpit. After much promise in qualifying, it was another disappointing race result for Jaguar.

Nick Heidfeld finished in 13th position in his Jordan Ford while Olivier Panis’ career in Formula One ended on a low note as he finished 14th, two laps down in the second Toyota. Timo Glock finished 15th a lap ahead of Gianmaria Bruni in the sole surviving Minardi.

It was not a classic race by any stretch of the imagination, although there were some great battles mid-field that were sadly missed by the Japanese Television Director. At the front Michael Schumacher had virtually no competition for the race win, while the prospect of a good battle for the lower podium positions ended when Barrichello and Coulthard got together. Still for Ferrari, Ralf Schumacher and the BAR Honda team, Japan 2004 was a superb triumph.

Japanese Grand Prix Results


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Photo: Ferrari