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Suzuka sorts the men from the boys

Even as rain lashed the Suzuka paddock on Friday, you could still sense an enthusiasm among drivers. This is a track every Formula One driver relishes.

Along with Spa, Monza and Sao Paolo, the host of the next race; Suzuka's 5.8km figure-of-eight lap is one of the most challenging, most rewarding tracks on the calendar ....and potentially the most unforgiving.

This was proved by a crash-fest which saw wrecked cars litter the pitlane on Saturday, even though dry track conditions prevailed. First Mark Webber slid off the track and so heavily damaged the monocoque of his Red Bull car that he had to sit out qualifying as his mechanics rebuilt the car around a spare chassis.

Then in qualifying itself, a spate of spins and crashes saw Romain Grosjean, Heikki Kovalainen, Jaime Alguersuari, Sebastian Buemi and Timo Glock all fall victim to Suzuka's no-compromise corners. For Timo Glock, a heavy impact with the wall opposite the pits meant an airlift to hospital.

Timo was then the centre of more mayhem. It seems that the medivac helicopter took the Toyota driver to the wrong hospital, where he was initially greeted with bewilderment rather than treatment!

Although the Toyota driver was found to have only superficial injuries to his leg, the medics vetoed any chance of his racing. It meant only a single Toyota took to the starting grid for the Japanese car maker's home race.

As it turned out, the massed ranks of Toyota employees in the Suzuka grandstands were rewarded with a fine drive by Jarno Trulli to a deserved second place. The veteran Italian, possibly in his last three races in F1, proved that experience is a virtue as he and his team combined clever racecraft and a pacey pitlane strategy to take the advantage from Lewis Hamilton's McLaren.

While another monster accident to Jaime Alguersuari demonstrated that Suzuka is not a track for rookie errors, there was proof too that youth is no impediment to success. Neither Lewis Hamilton nor Sebastian Vettel had ever raced at the track before, yet both rose to the occasion in fine style.

Some might argue that the race result might well have been different had the KERS energy recovery system on Hamilton's car not malfunctioned. However although Lewis might have been robbed of a power boost that might have conceivably taken him past Trulli for second place as the pace car released a bunched field with five laps to go, I do not think that he would have unduly troubled race winner Vettel.

Quite simply, Sebastian Vettel came, saw and conquered the Suzuka circuit. Aided by Adrian Newey's sweet-handling Red Bull chassis, the German was fastest in all three qualifying sessions before turning his pole position into a convincing victory.

As a result, Vettel continues to maintain a numerical possibility of snatching the World Champion's crown from title leaders Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello. But he will need to win the two final races in Brazil and Abu Dhabi to do so.

It is a tough goal, but one which Kimi Raikkonen in 2007 proved is attainable. That year he grabbed the title as then McLaren team-mates Alonso and Hamilton tripped each other up at the final hurdle. Who is to say it cannot happen again?

Meanwhile Vettel can be proud to come out on top of the circuit that sorts the men from the boys. At the age of just 22!

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