2014 Japanese Grand Prix: Accident overshadows Mercedes victory

By William Herrera October 08,2014

F1SUZUKA2014_JKI1630101The 15th race of the 2014 Formula One season found its way to Suzuka Japan. The weather forecast was of a storm hitting the Pacific nation by race day, and all week long, moving up the race start time was the talk in the paddock and in various media outfits.

 

As expected, rain began to fall on Sunday morning. Due to the treacherous conditions, race officials decided to start the Grand Prix behind the safety car. After two laps, the race was red flaged and all the cars made their way to the pit lane. Teams scrambled to try to keep everything dry for the restart.

 

Race director Charlie Whiting had the uneviable task of determining if and when the cars can proceed to race, and by 3:25 local time, the race was re-started, again behind the safety car. Unfortunately for Fernando Alonso, his Ferrari didn’t take to the long pause in the racing, and after four corners in the restart, slowly ground to a halt. His last retirement from the Japanese GP was back in 2012.

 

The track quickly dried up, and by lap 10 the race was green flagged. Rosberg led from Hamilton. Bottas, and Massa and the rest of the field played catch-up to the Mercedes duo. In the mid-field, Jenson Button sensing a dry line forming, pitted for intermediates, while Rosberg on full wets registered the fastest lap of the race. Button’s lap times were not what the team expected and the call to change to intermediates was perhaps a lap too early. But ever the racer, Jenson matched and even bested the sector times of both the Williams cars.

 

As the rest of the field drove down to pit lane for their respective intermediate tire changes, Button jumped both the Williams drivers and was now into 3rd place. Rosberg and Hamilton were knocking down fast lap times, one after another.

 

Rosberg on lap 14 decided to make his stop for intermediates, while Hamilton kept going, trying to get a 26 second buffer between him and his teammate. But Lewis ran wide at the spoon curve, losing him the time he needed to jump Nico. As he came out of the pits, Lewis found himself in P2.

 

The laps came tumbling down and around lap 23 Nico was registering slow times, owing to the degradation of his tires. Lewis, on the other hand, had been steadily trimming the lead, and when DRS was finally enabled on lap 24 (DRS was disabled due to wet conditions), Lewis began hunting down his teammate, ignorning calls from the team to “hold steady”. On lap 29 he was close enough to take Rosberg down at turn 1. Afterwards Lewis got down to the business of extending his lead. Car 44 was clearly kinder to its tires than Nico’s car number 6.

 

Lap 34 saw Nico come in again for a tire change, and after 2 laps Lewis came in for his new set. Nico was not able to capitalize on the traffic to get a jump on his teammate. As Hamilton came out out the pits, Rosberg was behind Ricciardo who was on an old set on intermediates and was struggling for grip. This handed the lead back to Hamilton.

 

Lap 42 saw conditions deteriorate and DRS was again disabled. Nonetheless, Ricciardo and Button kept fighting for position, not giving the other any breathing room, and at the hairpin the Red Bull went past the McLaren to the delight of the Aussie fans.

 

Then a series of unfortunate events started to unfold. Adrian Sutil on his Sauber slipped and went out at the Dunlop curve. As crews began to retrieve the stricken Sauber, Jules Bianchi in his Marussia went out at the same corner and plowed straight into the tractor being used to remove Sutil’s car.

 

A Formula 1 car has the sturdiest monocoque in all of motorsports. It was designed with safety in mind and it can have a high-speed frontal collision and a driver would walk away unscathed. It can even roll over and the drivers cell would be intact, but it was never designed to go under another vehicle, especially a tractor-crane.

 

Initial photos showed that the roll cage of the Marussia was torn off and Bianchi was found unconcious. Medical teams quickly were at the scene and took the Frenchman to Mie hospital for emergency surgery.

 

Again, the saftey car was deployed, and by lap 47 the race was red flagged. As the cars piled into the pit lane, Lewis Hamilton was declared the winner with Nico Rosberg taking second, and Sebastian Vettel taking third.

 

The awarding cermonies took on a predominantly somber mood, as all thoughts were with Jules Bianchi, his recovery and his family. Fittingly there was no champagne shower—celebrating was the farthest from anyone’s mind.

 

Concern for Jules was paramount.

 

Update: Jules Bianchi had emergency surgery at the Mie General Medical Center, after suffering “severe head injury”. Reports say Bianchi he is now out of surgery and is now breathing on his own at the Intensive Care Unit. His family issued a statement: Jules remains in the Intensive Care Unit of the Mie General Medical Center in Yokkaichi. He has suffered a diffuse axonal injury and is in a critical but stable condition. The medical professionals at the hospital are providing the very best treatment and care and we are grateful for everything they have done for Jules since his accident.

 

 

 

 

Disclaimer: The comments uploaded on this site do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of management and owner of Cebudailynews. We reserve the right to exclude comments that we deem to be inconsistent with our editorial standards.