2004 Japanese Grand Prix

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2004 Japanese Grand Prix
Race 17 of 18 in the 2004 Formula One World Championship
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Circuit Suzuka.png
Race details
Date10 October 2004
Official name 2004 Formula 1 Fuji Television Japanese Grand Prix
Location Suzuka Circuit, Suzuka, Mie, Japan
Course Permanent racing facility
Course length 5.807 km (3.608 miles)
Distance 53 laps, 307.573 km (191.117 miles)
Weather Sunny
Attendance 204,000 [1]
Pole position
Driver Ferrari
Time 1:33.542
Fastest lap
Driver Flag of Brazil.svg Rubens Barrichello Ferrari
Time 1:32.730 on lap 30
Podium
First Ferrari
Second Williams-BMW
Third BAR-Honda
Lap leaders
  • 2004 Japanese Grand Prix

The 2004 Japanese Grand Prix (officially the 2004 Formula 1 Fuji Television Japanese Grand Prix) [2] was a Formula One motor race held on 10 October 2004 at the Suzuka Circuit. It was Race 17 of 18 in the 2004 FIA Formula One World Championship.

Contents

Friday drivers

The bottom 6 teams in the 2003 Constructors' Championship were entitled to run a third car in free practice on Friday. These drivers drove on Friday but did not compete in qualifying or the race.

Wirdheim and Briscoe could not got to drive any single lap Friday training sessions. Teams confirmed it as a reason for not driving the drivers that they had a limited number of tyres for very wet weather, and were therefore not sufficient for the cars of the third drivers. [3]

ConstructorNoDriver
BAR-Honda 35 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Anthony Davidson
Sauber-Petronas -
Jaguar-Cosworth 37 Flag of Sweden.svg Björn Wirdheim
Toyota 38 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Ryan Briscoe
Jordan-Ford 39 Flag of the Netherlands.svg Robert Doornbos
Minardi-Cosworth 40 Flag of Belgium (civil).svg Bas Leinders

Report

Background

This was Jarno Trulli's first race with the Toyota team after missing the previous race. This was Olivier Panis's last race as he decided to retire from the race seat. But he stayed with the Toyota team, as the test driver.

Qualifying

All the running on Saturday was cancelled due to Typhoon Ma-on, meaning that both the qualifying sessions were run on Sunday morning. Qualifying took place on a track that was still damp but is drying out; Michael Schumacher took advantage of this and, taking to the track among the last thanks to an excellent performance in the first session, won pole position, with a large advantage over his rivals. Second was Ralf Schumacher, while Webber surprisingly took third place, still a full second behind the pole position time. The two BARs of Sato and Button followed, preceding Trulli, Fisichella, Coulthard and Villeneuve. The difficult conditions of the track put several drivers in difficulty: Alonso, Räikkönen, Montoya and Barrichello made mistakes, relegated to the second half of the grid.

Race

After some testing plagued by bad weather, the race started in dry conditions and sunshine. At the start, Michael and Ralf Schumacher had no difficulty maintaining the lead. Webber on the other hand, started poorly and was overtaken by Button, Sato and Trulli. Michael Schumacher immediately gained a clear advantage over his opponents. The only one who drove a similar pace was his brother Ralf, who also went into the pits first on the 9th lap. When Michael Schumacher refueled four laps later, he rejoined the track as the leader, ahead of Button (who started with a two-stop strategy and therefore had not yet pitted). The race for first place was practically over. While the BAR duo fought for third place (Sato with a three-stop strategy against Button's), the race is livened up by the comeback of Barrichello, Montoya, Räikkönen and Alonso; Trulli, however, is relegated and, having started with little petrol on board, has to deal with a Toyota that is very difficult to manage with a full tank of fuel.

On lap 20, Webber retired for a rather unusual reason: the cockpit of his Jaguar inexplicably overheated to such an extent that the Australian driver suffered minor burns on his thigh. After the first series of stops, Trulli, Montoya, Barrichello and Fisichella gave rise to an intense duel, with the Sauber driver having difficulty with the tyres, having to give way to the Brazilian from Ferrari, but managing to defend himself from the other two until his second refueling, on the 24th lap. Michael Schumacher continued to lead undisturbed and didn't relinquish the lead for one lap. His brother Ralf also had no particular difficulties defending his second place from the two BAR drivers. Coulthard climbs sharply up the overall standings and initially only makes two stops. With around twenty laps to go, the Scot was in fifth place, having refueled for the second time.

Behind him, however, Barrichello quickly recovered. On lap 38, the Brazilian attempted an attack, but the McLaren driver came out of the corner and the two subsequently touched each other. The two cars were damaged beyond repair and both had to give up. Alonso moved up to fifth place. Meanwhile, Button prevailed against his teammate in the duel for the podium. Sato got off to a slow start and pain from an old shoulder injury returned during the race and had to go without liquid for much of the race when a water bottle stopped working. [4] BAR virtually secured second place in the Constructors' Championship. The team increased its advantage over Renault to 16 points with one race remaining.

There were no more surprises in the final laps and Michael Schumacher won ahead of Ralf Schumacher, Button, Sato, Alonso, Räikkönen, Montoya and Fisichella. It was Ferrari's fifteenth victory of the season. In doing so, they equaled the previous record of the McLaren, which won fifteen out of sixteen Grands Prix victories in 1988, and the Ferrari, which won fifteen out of seventeen in 2002.

It was the last time the Schumacher brothers finished in 1–2 formation (having done so on four other occasions: 2001 Canadian Grand Prix, 2001 French Grand Prix, 2002 Brazilian Grand Prix, 2003 Canadian Grand Prix). It was also the last 1-2 finish between German drivers until the 2013 Indian Grand Prix.

Classification

Qualifying

Qualifying was held on Sunday morning due to weather conditions on Saturday.

PosNoDriverConstructorQ1 TimeQ2 TimeGapGrid
11 Flag of Germany.svg Michael Schumacher Ferrari 1:38.3971:33.5421
24 Flag of Germany.svg Ralf Schumacher Williams-BMW 1:38.8641:34.032+0.4902
314 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Mark Webber Jaguar-Cosworth 1:39.1701:34.571+1.0293
410 Flag of Japan.svg Takuma Sato BAR-Honda 1:40.1351:34.897+1.3554
59 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Jenson Button BAR-Honda 1:41.4231:35.157+1.6155
616 Flag of Italy.svg Jarno Trulli Toyota 1:37.7161:35.213+1.6716
711 Flag of Italy.svg Giancarlo Fisichella Sauber-Petronas 1:40.1511:36.136+2.5947
85 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 1:41.1261:36.156+2.6148
97 Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg Jacques Villeneuve Renault 1:41.8571:36.274+2.7329
1017 Flag of France.svg Olivier Panis Toyota 1:40.0291:36.420+2.87810
118 Flag of Spain.svg Fernando Alonso Renault 1:42.0561:36.663+3.12111
126 Flag of Finland.svg Kimi Räikkönen McLaren-Mercedes 1:41.5171:36.820+3.27812
133 Flag of Colombia.svg Juan Pablo Montoya Williams-BMW 1:44.3701:37.653+4.11113
1415 Flag of Austria.svg Christian Klien Jaguar-Cosworth 1:42.0541:38.258+4.71614
152 Flag of Brazil.svg Rubens Barrichello Ferrari 1:41.0011:38.637+5.09515
1618 Flag of Germany.svg Nick Heidfeld Jordan-Ford 1:42.4341:41.953+8.41116
1719 Flag of Germany.svg Timo Glock Jordan-Ford 1:43.6821:43.533+9.99117
1820 Flag of Italy.svg Gianmaria Bruni Minardi-Cosworth 1:45.4151:48.069+14.52718
1912 Flag of Brazil.svg Felipe Massa Sauber-Petronas 1:41.707No time 1 19
2021 Flag of Hungary.svg Zsolt Baumgartner Minardi-Cosworth No time 2 No time 3 20 4
Source: [5]
Notes

Race

PosNoDriverConstructorTyreLapsTime/RetiredGridPoints
11 Flag of Germany.svg Michael Schumacher Ferrari B 531:24:26.985110
24 Flag of Germany.svg Ralf Schumacher Williams-BMW M 53+14.09828
39 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Jenson Button BAR-Honda M 53+19.66256
410 Flag of Japan.svg Takuma Sato BAR-Honda M 53+31.78145
58 Flag of Spain.svg Fernando Alonso Renault M 53+37.767114
66 Flag of Finland.svg Kimi Räikkönen McLaren-Mercedes M 53+39.362123
73 Flag of Colombia.svg Juan Pablo Montoya Williams-BMW M 53+55.347132
811 Flag of Italy.svg Giancarlo Fisichella Sauber-Petronas B 53+56.27671
912 Flag of Brazil.svg Felipe Massa Sauber-Petronas B 53+1:29.65619 
107 Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg Jacques Villeneuve Renault M 52+1 Lap9 
1116 Flag of Italy.svg Jarno Trulli Toyota M 52+1 Lap6 
1215 Flag of Austria.svg Christian Klien Jaguar-Cosworth M 52+1 Lap14 
1318 Flag of Germany.svg Nick Heidfeld Jordan-Ford B 52+1 Lap16 
1417 Flag of France.svg Olivier Panis Toyota M 51+2 Laps10 
1519 Flag of Germany.svg Timo Glock Jordan-Ford B 51+2 Laps17 
1620 Flag of Italy.svg Gianmaria Bruni Minardi-Cosworth B 50+3 Laps18 
Ret21 Flag of Hungary.svg Zsolt Baumgartner Minardi-Cosworth B 41SpinPL 4  
Ret5 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes M 38Collision8 
Ret2 Flag of Brazil.svg Rubens Barrichello Ferrari B 38Collision15 
Ret14 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Mark Webber Jaguar-Cosworth M 20Overheating3 
Source: [6]
Notes

Championship standings after the race

References

  1. "Formula 1 Honda Japanese Grand Prix 2022 – Media Kit" (PDF). Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile. 5 October 2022. Retrieved 5 October 2022.
  2. "2004 FORMULA 1 Fuji Television Japanese Grand Prix - Race" . Retrieved 28 December 2020.
  3. "Practice 2 Report - Schumacher tops list in rain soaked day" . Retrieved 2 November 2021.
  4. "Sato Battles Shoulder Pain to Finish Fourth". Autosport.com. Retrieved 8 December 2023.
  5. "2004 Japanese Grand Prix - Qualifying Results". Formula1.com. Formula1.com Limited. Archived from the original on 24 August 2013. Retrieved 27 December 2015.
  6. "2004 Japanese Grand Prix - Race Results". Formula1.com. Formula1.com Limited. Archived from the original on 16 November 2014. Retrieved 27 December 2015.
  7. 1 2 "Japan 2004 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 18 March 2019.
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2004 Chinese Grand Prix
FIA Formula One World Championship
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2004 Brazilian Grand Prix
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34°50′35″N136°32′26″E / 34.84306°N 136.54056°E / 34.84306; 136.54056