Motor racing-Team by team analysis of Japanese Grand Prix - Reuters

SUZUKA, Japan | Sun Oct 13, 2013 9:35pm IST

SUZUKA, Japan Oct 13 (Reuters) - Team-by-team analysis of Sunday's Japanese Formula One Grand Prix (listed in championship order):

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RED BULL (Sebastian Vettel 1, Mark Webber 2)

Vettel's fifth win in a row, ninth of the season and 35th of his career. He has now won four times in the last five years at Suzuka. The German leads Ferrari's Alonso by 90 points with four races remaining and should secure his fourth successive title in India in two weeks time. Webber started on pole with Vettel alongside but both were passed by Grosjean at the start. The Australian made three stops to Vettel's two.

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FERRARI (Fernando Alonso 4, Felipe Massa 10)

Alonso started eighth but made up two places at the start. His points made him Formula One's all-time top scorer, although points systems have changed. Massa was instructed to let him through but was reluctant to do so. The Brazilian then collected a drive-through penalty for a pit lane infringement. Ferrari increased their lead over Mercedes from one point to 10.

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MERCEDES (Nico Rosberg 8, Lewis Hamilton retired)

Hamilton retired after seven laps with floor damage following contact with Vettel at the start which cut his right rear tyre. Rosberg got a drive-through penalty for an unsafe release at his first pitstop that led to a near-miss with Sergio Perez, and then switched to a three stop strategy. He and the Mexican also later made contact on the track.

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LOTUS (Romain Grosjean 3, Kimi Raikkonen 5)

Grosjean made a great start from fourth on the grid, taking the lead into the first corner and ending up with his fourth podium of the year. Raikkonen had a tougher time, dropping to 11th from ninth before fighting back to stay third in the championship. Renault are now just 23 points behind Mercedes.

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MCLAREN (Jenson Button 9, Sergio Perez 15)

Button gained a place from where he started but suffered from understeer after changing the front wing settings before the start. He has lost places at the first corner. Perez had the two incidents with Rosberg, with the track clash leaving him with a left rear puncture and an extra pitstop.

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FORCE INDIA (Paul Di Resta 11, Adrian Sutil 14)

Di Resta lost a few places at the start. He was on course for a point but worn tyres left him unable to defend his position. Sutil started from the back after a five place penalty for an unscheduled gearbox change due to a crash in practice. He still moved up to 16th at the start.

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SAUBER (Nico Hulkenberg 6, Esteban Gutierrez 7)

Sauber's first double points finish of the season and the first of Gutierrez's F1 career, making him the first rookie on the scoresheets in 2013. It was also team founder Peter Sauber's 70th birthday. Hulkenberg again kept Alonso's Ferrari behind him for much of the race until his tyres lost performance.

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TORO ROSSO (Jean-Eric Vergne 12, Daniel Ricciardo 13)

Vergne, whose car had to be rebuilt after catching fire in qualifying, lost time in the pitstops. Ricciardo passed Sutil on the outside of the 130R corner but ran wide onto the grass and was handed a drive-through penalty for gaining an advantage by leaving the track.

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WILLIAMS (Pastor Maldonado 16, Valtteri Bottas 17)

Still a long way from the points. Maldonado overtook Bottas on the last lap at the final chicane.

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MARUSSIA (Max Chilton 19, Jules Bianchi retired)

Bianchi, who had a 10 place penalty for his third reprimand of the season but still started ahead of where he qualified due to other penalties, crashed out at the start after tangling with Van der Garde. Chilton is now the only driver to have finished all 15 races this season.

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CATERHAM (Charles Pic 18, Giedo van der Garde retired)

Caterham chalked up a first with Pic, who also had a meaningless 10 place penalty for a third reprimand, handed a drive-through penalty before the race had even started for jumping a red light the day before. (Reporting by Alan Baldwin; Editing by John Mehaffey)