The 2007 Japanese Grand Prix was held at Fuji Speedway for the first time in 30 years after the track had been recently revised. Fuji had gone down in the history books as providing many entertaining and dramatic races over the years, specifically the well documented 1976 season finale that saw James Hunt crowned champion in atrocious conditions. Much like that race, the 2007 event was run in torrential rain with the added difficulty of mist covering the circuit. What was to follow would turn out to be one of the most thrilling races of the 2007 season.
Background
Lewis Hamilton started the weekend with a slender two point championship lead over two-time World Champion and teammate Fernando Alonso. The Spaniard was a further 11 points ahead of Kimi Räikkönen who was in his debut season for Ferrari. McLaren had been excluded from the Constructors’ Championship after the Spygate scandal which left Ferrari in a commanding 71 point lead over BMW Sauber.
Hamilton had claimed pole position, his 5th of the season, ahead of Alonso with the two Ferraris of Räikkönen and Felipe Massa qualifying in 3rd and 4th respectively. Sebastian Vettel, just a few races in to his Formula 1 career started the race from 8th in the Toro Rosso, the team’s best ever qualifying result at the time.
The Race
Due to the appalling conditions the race was deemed too dangerous to start normally and was started behind the safety car, which led the cars round for the first 19 laps. Ferrari had started their drivers on standard wet weather tyres as opposed to the ‘extreme wets’ which everyone else was on. This turned out to be the wrong decision, especially as the FIA had made it an obligatory requirement to start the race on the extreme wets as the track conditions were treacherous. Both Räikkönen and Massa were forced to pit during these first few laps which dropped them to the back of the field.
When the safety car eventually came in Hamilton led the field away with Alonso pursuing closely and a fast starting Sebastian Vettel had climbed up to 3rd place after a collision between Nick Heidfeld and Jenson Button. Mark Webber was in 4th and driving impressively despite suffering from food poisoning which had led to him vomiting in his helmet during the initial safety car period.
The track conditions were still very tricky and many drivers were found spinning trying to navigate a track that had a vast amount of standing water on it. Alex Wurz lost control going into turn 1 and collided heavily with back of Felipe Massa’s Ferrari. The Brazilian was able to get going again but Wurz was forced to retire on the spot after sustaining heavy damage to his car. Alonso had a couple of pirouettes and Robert Kubica under steered heavily into Hamilton to send them both spinning after the Brit had made his first pit stop. Luckily they were both able to resume the race unscathed.
The race, and the championship, would be spiced up when reigning World Champion and championship contender Fernando Alonso slammed his McLaren into the wall, scattering debris all over the track. The Spaniard blamed aquaplaning for the incident which led to a McLaren failing to finish a race for the first time in 2007. The crash brought out the safety car and bunched the field up. On lap 45, with the safety car still deployed, Sebastian Vettel, who had earlier become the youngest driver ever to lead a Formula 1 race, drove his Toro Rosso straight into the back of senior team Red Bull’s Mark Webber. The pair were running in 3rd and 2nd respectively and were both forced to retire from the race. Vettel was seen crying his eyes out in the garage once he had returned to the pits.
When the safety car came in Lewis Hamilton stretched his legs ahead of Heikki Kovalainen in the Renault, who was coming under repeated pressure from a charging Räikkönen. Despite repeated overtaking attempts from Räikkönen, Kovalainen was able to hold onto 2nd and claim his first podium finish to beat his fellow countryman into 3rd. This would be the first time two Finnish drivers had both finished on the podium together. Hamilton went on to claim an emphatic win and take a 12 point lead going into the final two races of what was turning out to be a mightily impressive first season in Formula 1 for the Brit.
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