2009 Japanese Grand Prix

Lots of crashes in practice and qualifying. Blog-favorite Vettel on pole. Both other championship contenders got 5-grid spot penalties due to not slowing down for yellow flags during qualifying. Barichello ended up in 6th, and Button in 10th. Red Bull's Mark Webber crashed heavily during practice, and did not take part in qualifying, so he'll be starting from pit lane.

Apparently there have been 5 crashes and 7 penalties even before the race has started. This could be interesting. I'm hoping that there will be at least 1 more crash. As the 2 Brawn cars run into each other.

For the championship, Vettel needs to outscore Button by 6 points or something to stay alive in the championship. Button needs to score 5 points over Barichello to clinch the championship. Or something like that.

And Jenson Button's father seems to only own pink button-up shirts. Every time he shows up on TV, he's wearing a pink button-up shirt...

Great start for Vettel, and he's already built up a pretty sizable lead over 2nd just from the first lap. 1.1 seconds. Sweet crap. Vettel is fast. Lets hope he keeps it up. Although its probably apparent from the fact that he's still in championship contention, even though he's retired from 5 races thus far in the season. Button and Barichello have each retired from one race.

And Adrian Sutil just spun his car for no apparent reason, and ended up letting Button by. Now Button's in 8th, and is in a points scoring position. You might remember Adrian Sutil as the one who crashed into the bearded German Nick Heidfeld in the last race in Singapore. Jerkface.

Vettel's still in first after his final pit stop. I think he's led the entire race thus far. Button's just made his final stop, and he's currently in 10th or so. Not sure if anyone in front of him still needs to pit. Barichello just pitted and came out just in front of Button.

Algersuari just crashed with 8 laps to go, which brings out the safety car. Hopefully this doesn't screw with Vettel's chances, as it negates the rather large lead he had over 2nd place Trulli. Barichello in 7th (2 points), Button in 8th (for 1 point). Vettel still leading (10 points). Although, I'm quite surprised that this crash with 8 laps to go was the first major incident of the race. Aside from Sutil's spin, which didn't really do any damage to anything.

And an engineer for the Red Bull team just popped open a Red Bull. Apt.

And Vettel takes off again on the restart with 4 laps to go.

And Webber takes fastest-lap on the penultimate lap. All the way down in 17th and last place.

And Vettel remains alive in the championship with the victory. And Red Bull remains alive in the Constructors championship by a total of one point. Seems rather unlikely for them right now... But we can always hold out hope.