Vettel stays in the Hunt

A pole to flag victory for Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel, still keeps the young German with a mathimatical chance of taking the 2009 Driver's Championship.





The 22 year-old, dominated from start to finish in Suzuka, with the only real pressure coming from Mclaren's Ker-aided Lewis Hamilton, that apart, Japan was a breeze for the Milton Keynes based team, with Italy's Jarno Trulli, who's future has been under threat in recent weeks, answering his critcs, with a well-deserved 2nd, and Lewis Hamilton following in 3rd.


Kimi Raikkonen, now as things stand without a drive for 2010, obviously that should change in the coming months, with Mclaren & Toyota rumoured to be vying for his services, the Flying Finn finished 4th in his Ferrari, Williams Nico Rosberg in 5th, Nick Heidlfeld for BMW-Sauber in 6th Place.





The final two points places went to the championship contenders, Rubens Barrichello(7th) & Jenson Button (8th), The Brawn Gp pair indulging in an exercise of damage limitation after falling foul of the race steward's in Saturday's Qualifying.





Button has drawn critisism from many corners through-out the summer,and in more recent races for only doing barely enough to tease out ans maintain a slim lead in the driver's title race, as BBC F1 commentator Martin Brundle put in recently, he felt Button was "Reversing his way to the title", As a fellow Englishman, Brundle obviously feels that Jenson is not being as dominant as he should be given Brawn's superiority in the early races of the season.





And with some vindication, it is nearly 4 months since Button crossed the line in Istanbul for his 6th win from 7 starts, since then is form has dropped alarmingly, substandard performances in qualifying and in races,added to that a 1st lap crash in Belgium, 2 victories to his team-mate Barrichello in Valencia & Monza, has put F1's elder statesman within a chance of the title at the age of 37.





As for Vettel, he too has made crucial mistakes at various stages this season, added to that the uncertain of the health of the Renault V8 powertrain in the back of the RB5, Red Bull must now thread carefully with regard to Vettel's engine in the remaining 2 rounds.





Next up, is Interlagos, Sao Paulo, Brazil. Any just like Lewis Hamilton, last Year, Button will have to overcome, a feverish partizan home-crowd, and a burning national pride, to deprive Barrichello of the title in his hometown.