Schumacher record shares spotlight with Sato's podium finish

Japanese Grand Prix: Ferrari No 1 becomes first man in history to score points in every race of season as Jordan driver casts off joke image

Without all the statistics, what would there be to say about Ferrari's domination of the Japanese Grand Prix? Michael Schumacher took pole position. Michael Schumacher led every lap but the two on which he made his refuelling stops. And Michael Schumacher won. End of story. End of season.

It is a story that has become all too familiar in 2002, but in Suzuka the red cars were so superior that all McLaren-Mercedes and Williams-BMW could aspire to was third place. After Ralf Schumacher's Williams had wilted, the last podium place fell to Kimi Raikkonen, 23.292sec adrift of Schumacher and his partner, Rubens Barrichello. And even that figure was misleading, for the world champion again slowed dramatically on the final lap so that he and Barrichello could cross the finish line nose to tail.

It was the 64th victory of Schumacher's stellar career, his record 11th in a dream season, the 159th for Ferrari and its ninth one-two of the year. It gave Schumacher a hat-trick in the race and, in a season of firsts, it made him the first man in history to finish every race in a season and to do so with a podium finish every time.

"It's hard to find the words to describe this season," Schumacher admitted. "But the results speak for themselves. Finishing all the races on the podium shows the quality of the work done by all the team. What they have achieved is unbelievable."

There was not a Japanese Grand Prix as such. Schumacher took off from pole position and romped into the distance. His lead at the end of the first lap was 2.2sec, and going into the 53rd and last it was 9.1sec before he allowed Barrichello to catch up.

Behind them, David Coulthard saw his hopes evaporate as early as the seventh lap when a throttle problem stopped his McLaren-Mercedes as he was running a comfortable third. That left Ralf Schumacher to chase fruitlessly, challenged initially by Raikkonen before the Finn's McLaren also dropped back with a less terminal fault in its throttle mechanism. Schumacher Jnr was thus so comfortable in third place that Williams reduced his engine's revs, but it still blew up without warning on the 49th lap leaving Raikkonen to trail the Ferraris home for the last podium place in the 100th race for West McLaren-Mercedes team. Juan Pablo Montoya, second here to Schumacher a year ago, had a lacklustre race in an inconsistent-handling Williams to finish a distant fourth.

Mercifully there was, in all this tedium, a human story that stirred the emotions and gave the sport a much-needed shot in the arm. It centred on the diminutive figure of Takuma Sato, who earlier in the season was in danger of becoming a pit-lane joke as he had accident after accident.

This time, having outqualified his team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella – no mean feat against an impressive but underrated racer on a driver's circuit – he outraced him too. Sato's first pit stop on the 21st lap dropped him behind the two Renaults of Jarno Trulli and Jenson Button. But his second, 15 laps later, saw him regain position ahead of the Englishman.

By that time Trulli had succumbed to an engine problem so Sato, carried by the hyper-enthusiastic crowd, was left to drive the race of his life in sixth place. Then Ralf Schumacher's demise promoted him to fifth. This was not merely his best-ever result since he graduated to Formula One at the beginning of the season, but marked the first time he had scored championship points and elevated the Jordan-Honda team to sixth place in the constructors' championship ahead of Jaguar.

"That was incredible!" Sato said, almost overcome. "One point was what I was after, but I scored two, which is excellent for the team. The crowd was unbelievable, waving at me on every single lap. I saw everything! This is one of the best feelings in my life."

"I think today's race was great for the fans as they saw two winners," Schumacher said. "Me, and Sato getting his first F1 points at his home event." But whether the Japanese driver's result was sufficient to keep his seat at Jordan remains to be seen; Eddie Irvine is expected to join Fisichella for the 2003 season.

Button was happy with sixth place in his last race for the Renault team before joining BAR- Honda, but there was no fairy-tale ending for Allan McNish in what should have been his last Formula One race for Toyota. The 32-year-old Scotsman had punched a hole through the safety barriers after losing control at close to 200mph during the previous day's qualifying session, but though he set the 13th-fastest time during the warm-up on the morning of the race he was advised not to race by Formula One's medical officer, Professor Sid Watkins.

SCHUMACHER'S RECORDS

Drivers' Titles: 5 (shared with Juan Manuel Fangio).

Career Wins: 64 (Next best Alain Prost, 51).

Career Fastest Laps: 51 (Prost, 41).

Career Points: 945 (Prost, 798).

Wins in a season: 11 in 2002 (shared previous record of nine with Nigel Mansell).

Points in a season: 144 in 2002 (set previous record with 123 in 2001)

Widest championship winning margin: 67 in 2002 (Beat previous best of 58 he set last year).

Consecutive races in points: 22 (Since 2001 German GP, previous best was 15 by Carlos Reutemann between 1980-81. Schumacher has finished last 19 races on the podium including every race this season, another first).

SUZUKA DETAILS

1 M Schumacher (Ger) Ferrari 1hr 26min 59.698sec avge speed 212.644kph (132.159mph)
2 R Barrichello (Bra) Ferrari +0.506sec
3 K Raikkonen (Fin) McLaren-Mercedes +23.292
4 J P Montoya (Col) Williams-BMW +36.275
5 T Sato (Japan) Jordan-Honda +82.694
6 J Button (GB) Renault +1 lap
7 N Heidfeld (Ger) Sauber-Petronas +1 lap; 8 M Salo (Fin) Toyota +1 lap; 9 E Irvine (GB) Jaguar +1 lap; 10 M Webber (Aus) Minardi-Asiatech +2 laps.

Did not finish: 11 R Schumacher (Ger) Williams-BMW.

Not Classified: P de la Rosa (Sp) Jaguar (39 laps); G Fisichella (It) Jordan-Honda (37); J Trulli (It) Renault (32); J Villeneuve (Can) British American Racing (27); A Yoong (Mal) Minardi-Asiatech (14); O Panis (Fr) British American Racing (8); D Coulthard (GB) McLaren-Mercedes (7); F Massa (Bra) Sauber-Petronas (3).

Did Not Start: A McNish (GB) Toyota.

Fastest Lap: M Schumacher 1:36.125 (on lap 15).

Constructors' Championship: 1 Ferrari 221, 2 Williams-BMW 92, 3 McLaren-Mercedes 67, 4 Renault 23, 5 Sauber-Petronas 11, 6 Jordan-Honda 9, 7 Jaguar 8, 8 BAR-Honda 7, 9= Minardi-Asiatech, Toyota, Arrows 2.