Vettel leads commanding Red Bull 1-2

His Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber was a close second, and extended his championship lead to 14 points over third-place finisher Fernando Alonso and Vettel, now up to joint second thanks to his first win since Valencia.

McLaren's title hopes took another blow as Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton, the latter hobbled by the loss of third gear, finished fourth and fifth.

Most of the incident in the race was compacted into the opening minutes - although the destruction began even before the start, when Virgin's Lucas di Grassi had a massive, and bizarre, crash at the 130R on his way to the dummy grid.

Then when the race got underway, the fast-starting Vitaly Petrov (Renault) clipped Nico Hulkenberg's Williams and slammed into the barriers on the pits straight, moments before Ferrari's Felipe Massa took to the grass going into the first corner and speared into Tonio Liuzzi's Force India.

The safety car was immediately brought out, and one of the race's most intriguing possibilities was removed during the yellow. Robert Kubica had split the Red Bulls off the line, but the second-placed Renault pulled off on lap three after shedding its right rear wheel while cruising around behind the pace car.

Red Bull therefore resumed one-two formation at the restart, with Vettel and Webber easily pulling away from Alonso (Ferrari) at around a second per lap initially.

The only time they were headed was when Button's alternative strategy allowed him to lead from laps 25 to 38, as the world champion ran long on his hard tyres before changing to softs and mounting a late charge.

His targets were Hamilton and Alonso. A battle between the two had seemed to be brewing until Hamilton reported the loss of third gear in the final stages. He tumbled away from the Ferrari and let Button pass him with ease at the hairpin on lap 44. Hamilton was able to hang on to fifth, while the gap to Alonso was too great for Button to close in the time remaining.

Michael Schumacher returned to the top six after one of his strongest races of the year. He looked set to finish behind Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg, who had pitted under the safety car at the start, until the younger German lost a wheel and had a big crash at the S curves with five laps to go. Rosberg had earlier escaped a near-miss with Sebastien Buemi when an attempt to pass the Toro Rosso on the outside at the 130R went awry.

Late entertainment was again provided by Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi. Running an identical strategy to Button, he dived past Jaime Alguersuari (Toro Rosso) and Adrian Sutil (Force India) at the hairpin in his first stint, but fell behind both after finally pitting.

He flew on fresh tyres, though, surging past Alguersuari again - with the Toro Rosso breaking its front wing trying to retaliate - gaining a place when Sutil's engine blew (and sent him spinning scarily at the 130R), then passing Rubens Barrichello's Williams and his Sauber team-mate Nick Heidfeld to delight the home crowd with a hard-earned seventh.

Heidfeld scored his first points back with Sauber in eighth, while Barrichello was only ninth having been passed by Schumacher on-track and Heidfeld in the pits even before falling victim to Kobayashi. Buemi completed the top 10.

PROVISIONAL RACE RESULTS

The Japanese Grand Prix
Suzuka, Japan;
53 laps; 307.573km;
Weather: Sunny.

Classified:

Pos  Driver        Team                       Time
 1.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault           1h30:27.323
 2.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault           +     0.905
 3.  Alonso        Ferrari                    +     2.721
 4.  Button        McLaren-Mercedes           +    13.522
 5.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes           +    39.595
 6.  Schumacher    Mercedes                   +    59.933
 7.  Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari             +  1:04:038
 8.  Heidfeld      Sauber-Ferrari             +  1:09.648
 9.  Barrichello   Williams-Cosworth          +  1:10.846
10.  Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +  1:12.806
11.  Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +     1 lap
12.  Kovalainen    Lotus-Cosworth             +     1 lap
13.  Trulli        Lotus-Cosworth             +    2 laps
14.  Glock         Virgin-Cosworth            +    2 laps
15.  Senna         HRT-Cosworth               +    2 laps
16.  Yamamoto      HRT-Cosworth               +    3 laps
17.  Rosberg       Mercedes                   +    5 laps

Fastest lap: Webber, 1:33.474

Not classified/retirements:

Driver        Team                         On lap
Sutil         Force India-Mercedes         45
Kubica        Renault                      4
Hulkenberg    Williams-Cosworth            1
Massa         Ferrari                      1
Petrov        Renault                      1
Liuzzi        Force India-Mercedes         1
Di Grassi     Virgin-Cosworth              1


World Championship standings, round 16:                

Drivers:                    Constructors:             
 1.  Webber       220        1.  Red Bull-Renault          426
 2.  Alonso       206        2.  McLaren-Mercedes          381
 3.  Vettel       206        3.  Ferrari                   334
 4.  Hamilton     192        4.  Mercedes                  176
 5.  Button       189        5.  Renault                   133
 6.  Massa        128        6.  Force India-Mercedes       60
 7.  Rosberg      122        7.  Williams-Cosworth          58
 8.  Kubica       114        8.  Sauber-Ferrari             37
 9.  Schumacher    54        9.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari         11
10.  Sutil         47       
11.  Barrichello   41       
12.  Kobayashi     27       
13.  Petrov        19       
14.  Hulkenberg    17       
15.  Liuzzi        13       
16.  Buemi          8       
17.  De la Rosa     6       
18.  Heidfeld       4       
19.  Alguersuari    3       
       
All timing unofficial