Lotus Renault Japanese GP - Suzuka race report

Bruno Senna, R31-04 P16

Vitaly Petrov, R31-06 P9

Lotus Renault GP returned to the points today in a safety car-affected Japanese Grand Prix.

Vitaly Petrov, Lotus Renalut F1 Team

Photo by: xpb.cc

Starting on the fifth row of the grid on the medium tyres, Vitaly managed to get the better of team mate Bruno on the first lap as he squeezed past the Brazilian at turn 2 to take ninth position.

On his first pit stop on lap 18, Vitaly changed for another set of the Pirelli medium tyres before the safety car was deployed. He stopped once again 21 laps later, this time moving onto the soft tyres, which crucially allowed him to overtake both Force India cars and cross the finishing line in ninth position.

Bruno meanwhile suffered from a tricky first lap, slipping back four places into 13th. He adopted the same strategy as Vitaly (medium, medium, soft) as he endured a race full of traffic before crossing the line in 16th position.

Jenson Button continued his rich vein of form by winning the race ahead of Fernando Alonso whilst, as expected, Sebastian Vettel secured his second world title after coming home in third position.