Vettel takes Japan honours as Hamilton hits yet more problems

Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel did all he needed to do at Suzuka this afternoon to take his second consecutive Japanese Grand Prix victory and reinvigorate his championship challenge ahead of the final trio of races, after leading from pole position to take a slender 1-second win ahead of team-mate and championship leader Mark Webber. Although he never built a convincing lead, the German stayed in control throughout and emerged victorious for his eighth career win.

Vettel kept his lead at the start but was followed into turn one by Renault's Robert Kubica, who had got past Webber from third of the grid. However, two incidents at the start involving Vitaly Petrov and Nico Hulkenberg, and Felipe Massa and Tonio Liuzzi brought out the safety car for the first six laps, during which Kubica was forced to retire when his left-rear wheel parted company with the car.