Welcome back ladies and gentlemen; I hope your weekends were all as fantastic as mine was.  To kick things off this blissful October morning, we have a recap of a race that transpired over the weekend - the Japanese Grand Prix.

As usual, if you have it TIVO'd and plan on catching it later, read no further; otherwise, keep reading for a quick recap.

In qualifying, the team performed poorly, with drivers Kimi Raikkonen and Pedro de la Rosa starting a dismal 11th and 13th, respectively.

From the onset of the race, looked somewhat more optimistic with Kimi managing to work his way up into ninth by the end of the opening lap.  As the race progressed, both drivers continued to improve, with de la Rosa holding 12th when he made his first refueling stop on lap 20 and Kimi holding fourth on lap 22 when he too entered the pits for the first time.

After resuming in thirteenth and eight place, respectively, de la Rosa and Kimi sojourned on, with Pedro entering the pits for the second time on lap 40 and resuming the race in eleventh. Meanwhile, Kimi entered the pits for the second time on lap 41, resuming the race in fifth. 

After 53 laps, both drivers completed the race, each holding their respective positions of eleventh and fifth place.  Renault's Fernando Alonso managed to win the race, capturing his seventh win of the season, while Ferrari's Felipe Massa and Renault's Giancarlo Fisichella took the second and third finishing spots.

For more info including team and driver interviews, keep reading for the official press release.








OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE


F1 Japan: Kimi Räikkönen Fifth


Suzuka, Oct 08, 2006
The start: The tyre compound selected by the team and drivers proved to be not ideal and did not have enough grip in qualifying. Therefore, Kimi and Pedro qualified 11th and 13th respectively. Kimi improved to ninth during the first lap and Pedro was 14th at the end of the opening lap.

The race: Both cars carried a heavy fuel load for a long first stint. Pedro was running in 12th position when he made his first refuelling stop at the end of lap 20 (7.5sec) and lost one place when he rejoined the race. Kimi was fourth by lap 22 when he pitted for the first time (9.7sec) before resuming in eighth place.

On lap 40, Pedro was running tenth when he made his second refuelling stop (6.6sec) and lost the position as a result. Kimi was now running third. He came in for his second pit stop on lap 41 (5.7sec) and rejoined in fifth place.

After 53 laps, Kimi crossed the finishing line in fifth place, 43.5sec behind winner Alonso. Pedro came home 11th.

Comments

Kimi Räikkönen: "That was a good result for where we started the race, but it is not really good enough to be fighting for fifth place, and not what we wanted out of the weekend. The car felt a lot better today especially in the long runs, but our race today was lost in qualifying yesterday where we just couldn't get the speed out of the car that was possible."

Pedro de la Rosa: "That was really a difficult race for me today. Starting from 13th on the grid it was always going to be difficult to move through the field as everyone around me was on very similar strategies. I really struggled to get any pace out of the car as my tyres just had no grip. This weekend could have been a lot better if we had been on different tyres."

Ron Dennis, Team Principal: "A tremendous race by Kimi, fifth place was the best he could do under the circumstances. Our race pace was not so bad and would have been even better with the right tyre choice. With that in mind, we are looking forward to Brazil where we expect to be more competitive. Pedro drove a solid race. However coming from this low grid position it was difficult to improve further through the field."

Norbert Haug, Vice President Mercedes-Benz Motorsport: "The race speed was better than qualifying had indicated. This was shown by Kimi's fourth fastest lap of the race. However more than fifth place was not really possible, taking into account that he came from 11th on the grid and we probably didn't take the optimum tyre choice. We now focus all our work on being more competitive in the final race at Brazil."

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