We Have a Champion
Japanese Grand Prix
The rain in Japan threatened to ruin a lot of thing, most notably, the whole race. But in the end the sun came out on the Sunday and allowed qualifying and the race to go ahead. It turned out to be a decent race in the end, with some spectacular moments, but aside from one dramatic moment before the race, it was a very quiet race for the new teams.
It was a Noah’s Ark formation on the grid. On the back row as expected were the two Hispania’s, Bruno Senna in front of the returning Sakon Yamamoto. In front of them were the Virgin’s, a rare occasion as Lucas di Grassi out qualified Timo Glock, and at the top was Jarno Trulli starting ahead of Heikki Kovalainen.
A few hours later it was the turn of the race, but Lucas di Grassi didn’t fancy it. On the outlap he lost control at the 130R and ruined his car in the barrier, making him unable to even start the race.
The start kept formation pretty much, but the Safety Car after one lap allowed Trulli, Glock and Senna to come in and change tyres early on. This pushed Kovalainen and Yamamoto up to the front and the rest chasing.
It didn’t take long for Trulli and Glock to catch up to the Hispania, but they were caught up behind him and unable to pass, Trulli got by not much later but Glock had his race ruined by him. Despite several attempts at the overtake he had to wait until Yamamoto pitted before he could get by.
Kovalainen pitted and returned ahead of Trulli, and with the high amount of retirements, it pushed them to 12th, their best ever finishing position.
Ironically, it was the best finish for five of the drivers (excluding di Grassi obviously).
| Driver | Team | Race Pos. | Points | |
| 1 | Heikki Kovalainen | Lotus | 12th | 10 |
| 2 | Jarno Trulli | Lotus | 13th | 6 |
| 3 | Timo Glock | Virgin Racing | 14th | 4 |
| 4 | Bruno Senna | Hispania | 15th | 3 |
| 5 | Sakon Yamamoto | Hispania | 16th | 2 |
| 6 | Lucas di Grassi | Virgin Racing | DNS | 0 |
Standings
Drivers Championship
Ladies and gentlemen, we have a champion! Heikki is 32 points in front of Timo Glock and with only three races left, it means that he can not be closed down. Well done to Heikki and do expect a post about him soon enough. The battle for second is now the most important one, with Glock taking second by a point, and now Trulli within four points as well, this should spice up towards the end of the season. Bruno Senna finishes his first race in four to move to 25 and Yamamoto reaches double figures.
| Driver | Team | Points | ||
| 1 | C | Heikki Kovalainen | Lotus | 88 |
| 2 | Timo Glock | Virgin Racing | 56 | |
| 3 | Lucas di Grassi | Virgin Racing | 55 | |
| 4 | Jarno Trulli | Lotus | 52 | |
| 5 | Karun Chandhok | Hispania | 45 | |
| 6 | Bruno Senna | Hispania | 25 | |
| 7 | Sakon Yamamoto | Hispania | 11 | |
| 8 | Christian Klien | Hispania | 0 |
Teams Championship
It looks healthy for Lotus. 29 points in front and it means they can win the Teams Championship in Korea and be announced officially the best team.
| Team | Points | |
| 1 | Lotus | 140 |
| 2 | Virgin Racing | 111 |
| 3 | Hispania | 81 |
Posted on October 10, 2010, in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink. 19 Comments.
The Northern Waffler 
hooray for Heikki! I will eat cake in celebration. #anyexcuseforcake
Can’t say I blame you!
congratulations heikki!
Ted Kravitz mentioned during the race that Heikki’s 12th place finish was enough to put Lotus in tenth place in the constructor’s championship, which means more TV money. I dare say Lotus are the most deserving of it – and by golly they are going to need it if they are going to advance next year…
Not certain surely? Its unlikely but all Virgin/HRT need is a bit of luck to end up 11th one race to beat that still.
Congrats to Heikki, he also has read this and send an tweet about it. Via him I also read it and I think that this really a funny idea is to make F1 even more intresting!!
Yeah, its boosted my site stats by quite a bit! He’s a great sport for it too.
Gotta love these new teams, they’ve provided me with a lot of fun this season and certainly made my season. Heikki is deserving champion
I xpect @sirdickbranson to serve at airasia soon
Haha, looking more and more likely doesn’t it 🙂
Really very sad that Karun was replaced – he could easily be the 2nd placed driver with by far the worst car! (45pts + 11 of Yamamotos + more probably as Karun>Sakon)
It would have been very interesting to see what Karun could have done had he stayed in the car. I think overall, Karun’s remarkable reliability record would have easily pushed Heikki to at least the final two races.
But you know, these things happen, shame for Karun because he is a canny driver and could have done well in this.
Well we can still hope that he gets a drive next year on the back of what he could have/had already done up to Silverstone. Even if he doesn’t, It’s great to have his commentary on the BBC. If he is busy during quali and the race this year with HRT, then they might be able to sign him to commentate on those as well next year 😀
Hello, I found this site thanks to Heikki and I actually hold the same ranking with one little difference : the points system is the same but I attribute points even for DNF, in order not to penalise unlucky drivers, because I really wanted to evaluate them and not the teams. I thought you might be interested in the result, so it is :
1. Heikki Kovalainen 102
2. Timo Glock 73
3. Lucas di Grassi 69
4. Jarno Trulli 63
5. Karun Chandhok 49 (10 races)
6. Bruno Senna 44 (15 races)
7. Sakon Yamamoto 13 (6 races)
8. Christian Klien 3 (1 race)
Interesting stuff, and hardly any difference too, based on the positions at least. Heikki still walking away with it.
I think it shows how much reliability has helped Karun in this championship, because I think, even though Bruno is still behind him, that he is so much closer than he is in mine.
Cheers for that though!
Yayyy! Congratulations Heikki!!
Congratulation Heikki! I’m glad he won!!! 🙂 GO Lotus in Korea, and be the best of the new teams!
Congratulations to Heikki and nice of him to tweet this article so that his fans can read your very well-written article on the subject 🙂
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