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Formula 1
Japanese GP
2012 Japanese Grand Prix The Japanese Grand Prix
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7 Days
01 hrs
51 min
32 sec
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Lap 21: Massa, of course free of any Ferrari instruction to the contrary is flying, as he continues to chase Vettel in second place. He's just set a new fastest lap of the race with a 1m38.925s.
Lap 21: Massa remains the man to watch at the moment, setting a strong pace on the hard rubber to edge closer to leader Vettel.
Lap 21: So the order behind the leaders changes yet again. Hulkenberg is now seventh with Maldonado eighth and Webber up to ninth.
Lap 21: Ricciardo is 10th with di Resta 11th. Glock pits from 12th and he's the last driver to do so.
Lap 22: Bruno Senna has been handed a drive-through penalty for his part in the lap one chaos.
Lap 22: Button reports that he keeps missing gears but his pace remains good for the moment in fourth place.
Lap 22: This could prove to be Massa's best chance to fight for a win, and looking at his pace, one has to imagine that Fernando would have had a strong race, just as he promised he would yesterday.
Lap 22: Massa sets the fastest lap at 1m38.876s, now clocked 9.3s behind leader Vettel.
Lap 22: Schumacher takes over 12th spot after Glock's stop. Senna comes in to serve his punishment from 13th place.
Lap 22: Senna is smartly back out onto the circuit in 16th.
Lap 23: Hamilton tells his team that his front tyres have already gone off, despite being on the harder compound.
Lap 23: So Kovalainen moves up to 13th after Senna's drive-through penalty. Grosjean is now 14th with Vergne 15th, Senna 16th and Glock 17th.
Lap 23: Hamilton has fallen 2.4 seconds behind Raikkonen and is again struggling for pace in the McLaren.
Lap 23: Massa is told he needs another 15 laps from the current set of tyres.
Lap 24: Hulkenberg is now closing on Hamilton's McLaren as the pair run sixth and seventh.
Lap 24: Grosjean pits from 14th place. Including penalties this is his third visit of the day.
Lap 25: Behind the developing battle between Hamilton and Hulkenberg, Maldonado is 6.2s back in eighth spot. Webber is ninth with Ricciardo 10th.
Lap 25: Hulkenberg reports a struggle with his rear tyres as he looks for a DRS move on Hamilton's McLaren.
Lap 25: Ricciardo was six-tenths quicker than Webber on the last lap. A fight for ninth is shaping up between the pair.
Lap 25: Di Resta is 11th and now has Schumacher all over the back of him. Kovalainen is now 12.2s further back in 13th spot, still ahead of Vergne.
Lap 26: Vettel is matching Massa on pace now with the gap a steady 10 seconds between first and second.
Lap 26: Vergne finally passes Kovalainen after spending 25 laps looking at the Caterham rear wing. He's up to 13th.
Lap 26: Further down the order, Grosjean in 18th spot is on the gearbox of Charles Pic.
Lap 27: Button gets the call that McLaren are going for plan B, which could be three stops as drivers continue to complain of tyre troubles.
Lap 27: Kovalainen's pace is now dropping off in 14th and Senna is right with him.
Lap 27: Webber pits from ninth position in the Red Bull.
Lap 27: Raikkonen's pace has faded towards the end of his stint, with Hamilton now closing in on the Lotus.
Lap 28: Schumacher tries a cheeky move on di Resta into Turn 1 and after a second bite he makes the move stick. He is up to 10th.
Lap 28: Grosjean has passed Pic and takes over 17th place in the Lotus.
Lap 28: Vettel is still 10 seconds clear of Massa up front, with plenty of time in hand for Red Bull to make a strategy call.
Lap 28: Di Resta is down to 11th after that pass and Webber rejoined in 12th place after his stop. Vergne is 13th with Senna 14th.
Lap 29: Vettel reminds us of his dominance so far with a new fastest lap of 1m38.246s, pulling over 11 seconds clear.
Lap 29: Kovalainen is 15th and struggling badly now. Glock (16th) is catching him at almost two seconds per lap. He needs to come in.
Lap 29: McLaren has some of the quicker cars at the moment, with Button closing on Kobayshi and Hamilton doing likewise on Raikkonen.
Lap 30: Grosjean is catching both Kovalainen and Glock. He is 17th, with Pic 18th, Petrov 19th and de la Rosa in 20th.
Lap 31: Massa continues to fall away from Vettel now as the pair lap some backmarkers.
Lap 31: Raikkonen makes his second pitstop.
Lap 31: Hamilton will surely have to react to that as the Lotus resumes on fresh hards.
Lap 31: Webber's long stint on hards proved they can cover the remaining distance, but that could be a handful by the end for the Finn.
Lap 32: Kobayashi is the next man to head in for a second stop.
By: Emlyn Hughes, Geoff Creighton, Simon Strang
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