2002 Japanese Grand Prix

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2002 Japanese Grand Prix
Race 17 of 17 in the 2002 Formula One World Championship
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Suzuka circuit map (1987-2002).svg
Race details
Date13 October 2002
Official name 2002 Fuji Television Japanese Grand Prix
Location Suzuka Circuit
Suzuka, Mie, Japan
Course Permanent racing facility
Course length 5.821 [1] [2] km (3.617 miles)
Distance 53 laps, 308.317 [1] [2] km (191.579 miles)
Weather Sunny, Air: 26 °C (79 °F), Track 30 °C (86 °F)
Attendance 326,000 [3]
Pole position
Driver
 Ferrari
Time 1:31.317
Fastest lap
Driver Flag of Germany.svg Michael Schumacher Ferrari
Time 1:36.125 on lap 15
Podium
First
 Ferrari
Second
 Ferrari
Third
 McLaren-Mercedes
Lap leaders
  • 2002 Japanese Grand Prix

The 2002 Japanese Grand Prix (formally the 2002 Fuji Television Japanese Grand Prix) [4] was a Formula One motor race held at Suzuka on 13 October 2002. It was the seventeenth and final race of the 2002 FIA Formula One World Championship. It is also the last race held on this layout.

Contents

The 53-lap race was won by Michael Schumacher, driving a Ferrari. Schumacher took pole position, led the whole race except during the pit stops, and set the fastest race lap. It was his eleventh win of the season and the fifteenth for the Ferrari team, thus equalling the record set by McLaren in 1988. Teammate Rubens Barrichello finished second, with Kimi Räikkönen third in a McLaren-Mercedes.

This was the last race for 1999 runner-up Eddie Irvine and Mika Salo, who had been in F1 since 1993 and 1994 respectively. It was also the last race for Alex Yoong and Allan McNish, though the latter could not participate in the race itself due to injuries suffered in a heavy crash during qualifying.

This was the last race to use the 10-6-4-3-2-1 points system first introduced in 1991, and also the last race to use the race weekend format first introduced in 1996, with 3 practice sessions (two on Friday, one on Saturday morning), a one-hour qualifying session and a Sunday morning warm-up. The race would also mark Ferrari's last one-two finish for a year until the 2004 Australian Grand Prix. [5]

Background

With both drivers and constructors title already decided, the fight in the championships concentrated on the lower ranks. In the Drivers' Championship, Juan Pablo Montoya was 3rd, 5 points ahead of teammate Ralf Schumacher. For Ralf to take 3rd, he needed to either win the race, provided that Montoya finished lower than second, or to finish second with Montoya out of the point-scoring positions. David Coulthard had a slim chance of winning 3rd place but that could only happen if he won the Japanese Grand Prix with Montoya finishing 3rd or lower. Coulthard could take 4th in the Championship by finishing 4th and ahead of Ralf Schumacher. Further down, a number of drivers had a chance to improve their final ranking.

In the Constructors' Championship, Ferrari, Williams and McLaren had secured 1st to 3rd. Renault had almost clinched 4th as Sauber would needed at least to win the race with their second car finishing in the points to take 4th. Four points separated four teams (Sauber on 11, Jaguar with 8 and both Honda runners BAR and Jordan with 7 points each) in a tough fight for positions, as the final ranking influenced how much a team received from the revenue of TV rights.

Ferrari were expected to dominate this race. If Michael Schumacher managed to win the race, he would improve his record number of wins with a perfect finishing record, as Schumacher had not retired from any race that year and had finished every race on the podium. [6] This was the first Formula 1 race for Toyota at their home country of Japan.

A number of teams were testing the previous week before the Grand Prix. McLaren, Williams, Toyota and BAR were at Barcelona and McLaren test driver Alexander Wurz broke the lap record there. Ferrari were testing at Mugello with Sauber and at Jerez and Fiorano while Renault and Jordan tested at Silverstone. The teams concentrated on set-up for the Grand Prix as well as testing components for the 2003 season. [7]

Qualifying

Michael Schumacher grabbed his 7th pole position of the season and the 50th of his career ahead of teammate Rubens Barrichello and David Coulthard. Kimi Räikkönen was 4th ahead of Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya. Takuma Sato managed 7th and his best ever qualifying ahead of his teammate Giancarlo Fisichella. Jacques Villeneuve was 9th with Jenson Button wrapping up the top 10.

The session was interrupted for over 75 minutes after Allan McNish appeared to have lost control of his car and crashed backwards through the safety barrier at the 130R curve. The back of his car was destroyed, luckily though he didn't sustain any major injuries. He qualified in 18th, however was unfit to start the race. [8]

The fight for pole turned to be a no-contest with Michael Schumacher convincingly faster than anyone else here including his teammate. The fight at the front was really between the other 5 drivers of the top 3 teams. For most of the session they appeared to be evenly matched however Barrichello, Coulthard and Räikkönen all managed to improve late in the session while Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya didn't and hence the final order.

Behind the top 3 teams, the Jordan team took the honours of the best of the rest thanks to a more powerful Honda engine. Takuma Sato impressed his home crowds by not just outqualifying his teammate but also ending up in 7th and only 1.773 seconds off Michael's pace despite this being his first time on the track in a Formula 1 car. Behind Sato, it was close as expected with 1 second separating Sato in 7th and Massa in 15th.

In addition to McNish's crash, Olivier Panis and Eddie Irvine suffered from car problems and had to stop on the track. Panis managed to get back and use the spare but Irvine didn't.

In the battle of the teammates, Mika Salo managed to qualify 1.449 seconds ahead of Allan McNish although McNish had his crash and only had 1 run. Jacques Villeneuve managed to qualify 0.843 seconds ahead of Olivier Panis but again Panis had car problems and had to switch to the spare and Michael Schumacher managed to out-qualify Rubens Barrichello by 0.432 seconds. Closest were Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya with just 0.063 seconds separating them. David Coulthard managed to be 0.109 seconds ahead of Kimi Räikkönen and Jenson Button was 0.118 seconds ahead of Jarno Trulli who also suffered a car problem on his final run.

Takuma Sato had his best qualifying position the season while Michael Schumacher once again equalled his best. Both Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya equalled their worst qualifying positions this season.

Qualifying classification

PosNoDriverConstructorLapGapGrid
11 Flag of Germany.svg Michael Schumacher Ferrari 1:31.3171
22 Flag of Brazil.svg Rubens Barrichello Ferrari 1:31.749+0.4322
33 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 1:32.088+0.7713
44 Flag of Finland.svg Kimi Räikkönen McLaren-Mercedes 1:32.197+0.8804
55 Flag of Germany.svg Ralf Schumacher Williams-BMW 1:32.444+1.1275
66 Flag of Colombia.svg Juan Pablo Montoya Williams-BMW 1:32.507+1.1906
710 Flag of Japan.svg Takuma Sato Jordan-Honda 1:33.090+1.7737
89 Flag of Italy.svg Giancarlo Fisichella Jordan-Honda 1:33.276+1.9598
911 Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg Jacques Villeneuve BAR-Honda 1:33.349+2.0329
1015 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Jenson Button Renault 1:33.429+2.11210
1114 Flag of Italy.svg Jarno Trulli Renault 1:33.547+2.23011
127 Flag of Germany.svg Nick Heidfeld Sauber-Petronas 1:33.553+2.23612
1324 Flag of Finland.svg Mika Salo Toyota 1:33.742+2.42513
1416 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Eddie Irvine Jaguar-Cosworth 1:33.915+2.59814
158 Flag of Brazil.svg Felipe Massa Sauber-Petronas 1:33.979+2.66215
1612 Flag of France.svg Olivier Panis BAR-Honda 1:34.192+2.87516
1717 Flag of Spain.svg Pedro de la Rosa Jaguar-Cosworth 1:34.227+2.91017
1825 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Allan McNish Toyota 1:35.191+3.874
1923 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Mark Webber Minardi-Asiatech 1:35.958+4.64118
2022 Flag of Malaysia.svg Alex Yoong Minardi-Asiatech 1:36.267+4.95019
107% time: 1:37.709
Source: [2]

Race

Race classification

PosNoDriverConstructorTyreLapsTime/RetiredGridPoints
11 Flag of Germany.svg Michael Schumacher Ferrari B 531:26:59.698110
22 Flag of Brazil.svg Rubens Barrichello Ferrari B 53+0.50626
34 Flag of Finland.svg Kimi Räikkönen McLaren-Mercedes M 53+23.29244
46 Flag of Colombia.svg Juan Pablo Montoya Williams-BMW M 53+36.27563
510 Flag of Japan.svg Takuma Sato Jordan-Honda B 53+1:22.69472
615 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Jenson Button Renault M 52+1 lap101
77 Flag of Germany.svg Nick Heidfeld Sauber-Petronas B 52+1 lap12 
824 Flag of Finland.svg Mika Salo Toyota M 52+1 lap13 
916 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Eddie Irvine Jaguar-Cosworth M 52+1 lap14 
1023 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Mark Webber Minardi-Asiatech M 51+2 laps18 
115 Flag of Germany.svg Ralf Schumacher Williams-BMW M 48Engine5 
Ret17 Flag of Spain.svg Pedro de la Rosa Jaguar-Cosworth M 39Transmission17 
Ret9 Flag of Italy.svg Giancarlo Fisichella Jordan-Honda B 37Engine8 
Ret14 Flag of Italy.svg Jarno Trulli Renault M 32Mechanical11 
Ret11 Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg Jacques Villeneuve BAR-Honda B 27Engine9 
Ret22 Flag of Malaysia.svg Alex Yoong Minardi-Asiatech M 14Spun off19 
Ret12 Flag of France.svg Olivier Panis BAR-Honda B 8Mechanical16 
Ret3 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes M 7Throttle3 
Ret8 Flag of Brazil.svg Felipe Massa Sauber-Petronas B 3Accident15 
DNS25 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Allan McNish Toyota M Injured in qualifying 
Sources: [2] [9] [10]

Championship standings after the race

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References

  1. 1 2 "Japanese Grand Prix – Round 17, October 13, 2002". Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile. Archived from the original on 3 March 2003. Retrieved 18 May 2022.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Grand Prix of Japan". FIA.com. Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile. Archived from the original on 18 October 2012. Retrieved 26 December 2015.
  3. ↑ "Formula 1 Honda Japanese Grand Prix 2022 – Media Kit" (PDF). Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile. 5 October 2022. Retrieved 5 October 2022.
  4. ↑ "Japanese". Formula1.com. Retrieved 9 November 2021.
  5. ↑ "Ferrari-one-two-STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Stats F1. Retrieved 15 August 2022.
  6. ↑ "Hall of Fame - Michael Schumacher". formula1.com. Archived from the original on 28 June 2007. Retrieved 23 February 2016.
  7. ↑ "2002 Japanese GP - Race Preview". NewsOnF1. Retrieved 10 January 2016.
  8. ↑ McNish, Allan (13 October 2002). "McNish ruled out of Japanese GP". The Official Website of Allan McNish. Allan McNish. Archived from the original on January 30, 2011. Retrieved 31 October 2012.
  9. ↑ "2002 Japanese Grand Prix". Formula1.com. Formula1.com Limited. Retrieved 11 April 2020.
  10. ↑ "2002 FIA Formula One World Championship Japanese Grand Prix". fiaresultsandstatistics.motorsportstats.com.
  11. 1 2 "Japan 2002 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 18 March 2019.
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