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There was not a lot left to be resolved at the final round of the 2002 World Championship. All that remained were a few more records to be established and, sure enough, they duly were. About the only interesting, hilarious some would say, backdrop was the FIA's proposals to close the gap between the Ferrari drivers and the others. Although much derided by the usual commentators the idea of seeing how fast Michael Schumacher could go in a Minardi or what Felippe Massa would do to a Ferrari sounds fascinating. Why not just make the Ferraris tow a caravan behind them at each race? That ought to level the field a little. It shows the air of desperation creeping in amongst the organisers when excellence in design, preparation and execution is actually seen to be a fault rather than a virtue. Sure, it doesn't make rivetting viewing for the casual watcher but single-minded driven success like that achieved by the Ferrari team in recent years deserves to be held up as a goal for teams like McLaren and Williams to emulate. Qualifying resulted in a not unusual 2 x 2 grid, with the Ferraris at the front followed by the McLarens, the Williams and then, surprisingly, the two Jordans. With Honda's best engines obviously now going to BAR the two Jordan drivers must have tried ever so hard to out-qualify Villeneuve, who was right behind them in the fifth row. The race was eventful but in an entirely non-racing sense. Whilst the cars spread out along the track, with the two Ferraris nearly three quarters of a second quicker each lap than anyone else, the order behind was only shuffled by retirements and there was not a single discernible pass for position. Coulthard held down a good third place but retired on lap 8. Ralf Schumacher did the same on lap 48, the Hondas of Villeneuve and Fisichella blew up yet again and both Raikkonen and Montoya had quiet races and survived to finish third and fourth. How recent was it that Montoya was thought to be usurping Michael Schumacher's position as F1's best? The two biggest happenings were the miraculous survival of Allan McNish from his qualifying shunt and the race of a lifetime driven by Takuma Sato to finish fifth. They were his first Championship points, secured in the fairy land of a home GP and made team owner Eddie Jordan several million pounds richer when it comes to the divying out of the F1 spoils. For the record, it was Michael's 11th win of the season, the ninth 1-2 for the Ferrari team, the 70th win for Bridgestone..........and so it goes on. Jean Todt: " We have achieved a lot: fifteen wins, nine one-twos, Michael taking his third consecutive world title with Ferrari after eleven races, and Ferrari taking its fourth consecutive constructors’ championship after thirteen races. Rubens took second place in the Drivers’ classification with one race to go and we have scored 221 points, which is the same as all the other teams put together. It’s hard to imagine anything better. Rest assured that our motivation will be the same as this year’s. We know that, despite everything that is being said, it will be very difficult, because the opposition is very strong, especially those teams who have themselves experienced periods like the one we are going through now. " Michael Schumacher: “ I got a good start, built a gap and that meant the pit stops could be planned at just the right time. All weekend we were quick so I was not surprised at the gap. Now, I plan to have a nice winter and come back stronger next year. But I expect next season to be tougher as the other teams get closer. That will be a challenge. I still think we will be in the fight for the titles and winning races but maybe we will not win races so consistently. But we don’t need to be as dominant as long as we still win. " Rubens Barrichello: “At the start, I lost a bit to Michael and then for the first few laps the car was bottoming out a bit too much, so I was being careful not to spin and damage the tyres. After the first stop, I was not completely happy with the balance of the car, but that was my only problem all afternoon and I could cope with it. Maybe we went a little bit the wrong way in our set-up for the race. But with the gap to those behind me, I just had to concentrate and maintain my pace. Anyway, with two wins in the last three races, I am very happy." RACE RESULTS JAPANESE GP 53 laps. Weather: Warm, Sunny Classified: Pos Driver Team Time 1. M. Schumacher Ferrari (B) 1h26:59.698 2. Barrichello Ferrari (B) + 0:00.506 3. Raikkonen McLaren (M) + 0:23.292 4. Montoya Williams (M) + 0:36.275 5. Sato Jordan (B) + 1:22.694 6. Button Renault (M) + 1 Lap 7. Heidfeld Sauber (B) + 1 Lap 8. Salo Toyota (M) + 1 Lap 9. Irvine Jaguar (M) + 1 Lap 10. Webber Minardi (M) + 2 Lap World Championship Standing, Round 17: Drivers: Constructors: 1. M.Schumacher 144 1. Ferrari 221 2. Barrichello 77 2. Williams 92 3. Montoya 50 3. McLaren 65 4. R.Schumacher 42 4. Renault 23 5. Coulthard 41 5. Sauber 11 6. Raikkonen 24 6. Jordan 9 7. Button 14 7. Jaguar 8 8. Trulli 9 8. BAR 7 9. Irvine 8 =9. Minardi 2 10. Fisichella 7 =9. Toyota 2 =10. Heidfeld 7 =9. Arrows 2 12. Massa 4 =12. Villeneuve 4 14. Panis 3 =15. Frentzen 2 =15. Salo 2 =15. Webber 2 =15. Sato 2 Click here to return to the Ferrari Happenings page.
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