The Greatest Japanese Grand Prix

on the 25th of September 2005 the battle for the Formula 1 World Championship was over in the third to last round it would be Fernando Alonso who would pick up his first world title in a year where Renault managed to throw the strangle hold that Ferrari and Michael Schumacher had upon the championship this was Fernando alonso's moment and he was living it up he had earned every bit of that championship and after returning as a manufacturer in 2002 Renault were now on top of the world in no small part thanks to this guy but the drive to secure that title that afternoon wasn't exactly the greatest race to ever exist in Formula 1 ever matter of fact it wasn't even the best that year see while the world was celebrating a brand new world champion and the end of any real interest in that year's championship at the next round just 2 weeks later the Formula 1 circus was about to bestow the world with one of its greatest ever races in its history and it would come about in one of the more unexpected places the Suzuka circuit had been the home of Formula 1 in Japan since that Grand Prix returned to the calendar in 1987 and while it certainly is one of the best driver circuits on the entire calendar and it definitely had some history it wasn't exactly a hot bed for great racing and it still kind of isn't most were expecting a sort of atypical race that you would get in the early 2000s truly trains Mercedes engine explosions and tumas ramming into anything that moved but as fate would have it only one of those things would occur this weekend take your bets as to what will happen and don't cheat don't go on Wikipedia don't be an F1 YouTuber you've got about 47 seconds before this race is going to start so take your best guess got it conditions for qualifying were atrocious rain fell upon the circuit at the start of the session but by the end of it he was upgraded to a flood now the way qualifying worked back in 2005 was that each car went out one at a time each driver had the track all to themselves and had only one lap to string it together and place their car on the grid the order in which they went out was determined by reverse order of where they placed in the previous G Prix what this meant was that thanks to the worsening weather the leaders of the pack watched helpless as the track conditions became worse and worse and worse and by the time they went out the aim for them had switched from setting a fast lap time to making sure they didn't drown Schumaker in the Toyota would take pole position while Jensen button in the bar would line up on the front row as well in second place the new world champion and Alonso was down in 16th Place right near the tail end all the while his teammate Gian Carlo fysical was in third the only one of the top cars to be up at the pointy end the only other driver to set a slower lap time than alanso was the McLaren of Kimmy renan aside from alanso renan had arguably been the best driver that year some astonishing drives including six wins in his McLaren could have made him a genuine threat for the title and he would have been had his McLaren not shaken itself to bits almost every time it was sent out what was perhaps more annoying was that toward the latter half of the year the MP 4-20 had become the fastest car on the grid and the reliability woes were virtually ironed out but it was too little too late had things gone differently he might very well have been able to challenge Fernando for the championship but as we know hypotheticals mean nothing when it comes to winning actual championships as it was those two were first and second in the championship but both virtually last on the Griz with the exception of these three drivers who neglected to hand in their permission slips on time with the grid so shaken up no one was quite so sure what to expect I mean like I said no one really expects much of a race out of the circuit it is hard to pass here as it is and the arrow wash that you get with modern day F1 cars makes moving through the pack almost impossible whatever the case in just a few seconds we'd know the answer the lights went out and Alonso was immediately on a mission passing cars around him as if they were standing still his charge had already begun up at the front Ralph Schumacher started to make use of his 15 minutes of fame and sped off into an early lead but the man staring beside him Jensen Button had a secret weapon in hand for he was given full Rich engine settings for this race by Honda and he made use of this by immediately losing second place and coming under attack from the Red Bulls who at that time were not much good button's teammate tumas also had a laggy start and then it got worse under steering wide into the sandbox right in front of his hometown crowd to add insult to injury Ruben's barello in the Ferrari went off in sympathy bumping into him on his way to the beach and forcing them both into the pits what's perhaps a little ironic is that barell would end up replacing Sato at this team for the next year to the fans and the crowd watching the local boys sparing through the Junes was less than ideal but there was no reason for them to leave their seats because up ahead a lot was happening alanso was siing through the pack with the ferocity of a raccoon on Angel Dust by the end of the first lap he had gone from 16th on the grid to eighth centilating progress especially on a track like this renim was also romping through or be a little more ruggedly he ran wide at the Casio triangle and lost a bunch of positions as they began the second lap of the race however his teammate Juan Pablo Montoya ran even wider it was said that if a McLaren or a Rena failed to finish the race it would likely hand the constructor's championship over to the other team so for Montoya to be stranded by the side of the road surrounded by bits of what used to be his Formula 1 car kind of sealed mcclaren's face especially given how FY C was up the front and lanso was bound to join him soon never mind that it was jacqu Vier who ran him wide it's a very strange place to try and attempt a pass a bruised ego is always better than a literal bruised body or car but not for want Toya evidently renan was effectively a one-man band again whatever McLaren were going to achieve today he was going to have to do it all by himself the safety car was brought out I mean duh and the cars poled around for a few laps while shards of carbon fiber and montoya's ego was scraped off the track six laps later we were back racing Ralph Schumaker made the most of his restart and ran away from FY color but the Red Bulls behind them were still fast asleep and Michael Schumacher in the Ferrari began to round them up alanso followed in close Pursuit he did have a slight issue with the Red Bull of Christian clean but when all was said and done he let him back past then repass them all within the confines of the pit straight which was a little bit strange I thought this thing wasn't allowed like I don't know Belgium 2008 well anyway after disposing of clean alanso was now ranging up behind Schumacher the lord of the eyebrows was absolutely flying and then as they accelerated onto the front straight to begin lap 10 alanso fell behind he had slowed right down almost as if his car had a problem and then mysteriously as clean went back past him alono found his speed again what we didn't know at the time was that while the Renault team had read the rule book and probably understood it the FIA governing body weren't so sure that that earlier move on clean was totally legal so Renault radioed alanso and told him to give the place back to clean only for the FIA to then say Oh No actually no it's all right inaptitude in the motor racing governing body is not a new thing to try to make sense of them it's like trying to get out of the friend zone still though at least they weren't as anapt as some of the other clowns that were racing there that weekend Antonio Pia's day was done when he threw his Williams off at DNA and Sato in his desperate bid to impress the hierarchy at Honda threw his car into the side of Yano trilly and took him out of the race it was a bloody clumsy move and the stewards rewarded him with disqualification meanwhile up ahead alanso had gotten back past clean however the time loss to Schumaker was not needed and now teammate FY Kella was leading the race after it was revealed that Toyota had pulled the ultimate fugazi with Ralph schumaker's fuel this was an age where refueling was allowed and drivers would be starting on different amounts of fuel Toyota tried a big hail Mary wanting those 10 laps of Glory leading their home race now they were brought back to reality leaving Toyota no alternative but to watch their hopes slip away once again because FY C was running away and looking more and more set for victory it looked for all the world that despite the almighty pace of alanso and reenan this was FY Keller's race to lose and that was kind of a good thing he had not won a race since the very start of the Year all the while his teammate had won six he had played second fiddle for so long been told that he wasn't even in the same universe as his teammates now here he was with an opportunity to redeem himself in some way shape or form alanso meanwhile had caught shimi up again he was absolutely hounding the rear of the Ferrari it wasn't so much a question of if he could get past but when the Casio triangle or the happen would have been a likely place for most drivers but Fernando Alonso isn't most drivers passing the seven time world champion around the outside of 130r everyone watching completely stunned with what they had just seen Alonso had done a lot already to become the 2005 Champion but this was an inspired drive he was lapping a second and a half faster than anyone else on the track if he could keep this up FY Kella really didn't stand a chance and while alono managed to dispatch of shimi renan just couldn't for lap after lap the McLaren was left stranded behind the Ferrari unable to forge his way past despite his best efforts but when the Pit Stop Cycle sorted itself out rather amazingly shimi and Kimmy found themselves back ahead of alanso and a few laps after that Kimmy finally found his way past Schumacher going around the outside into turn one a move that mere mortals could only dream about pulling off not far behind him was of course Fernando but despite the sheer speed he had shown in the race he just couldn't find a way past the Ferrari while strien him was shrinking further and further into the distance he eventually worked his way past and when he did he began to catch back up again Alonso was on fire renan was on fire too and down the pack rather surprisingly Christian alus in the manard was on fire too no really he was on fire with around 15 laps to go FY K made his last pit stop and by now the Gap was such that even a Herculean drive from either Ren and or alanso wouldn't be enough to haul him in all that was needed from FY Cala was for him to hold up his end of the bargain and drive to the number that Reno demanded of him unfortunately he wasn't and renam was hauling more ass than a truck full of donkeys eventually it came time for him to make his last Pit Stop of the race fueled serviced out with eight laps to go the gap between aella and renan was 9 seconds but even if he somehow managed to pull it off catching a driver is one thing but passing is quite another especially around here where passing requires courage bravery or Madness most drivers certainly wouldn't try passing in the Grass at this place or any place for that matter although again Fernando Alonzo ain't most drivers you would think that alanso was driving for the fate of the world here in reality he was merely taking away a Podium from the William of Mark Weber quite what goes through the mind of a man who's willing to pull these moves off when he's already the world champion goes beyond comprehension but I guess that is why he became the world champion in the first place and why his teammate faltered for the vast majority of the Year even in circumstances like today even when everyone else was starting at the very back yes FY Keller did look as though he had this race in the back but with three laps to go his mirror showed him a rather unnerving sight thanks to an absent-minded Robert dorus in a back maram manadi renan was now right on fy's tail what was needed now from Gian Carlo was to keep a cool head and drive smart instead heading into Casio he defended when he didn't need to this compromised his run onto the straight and now Kimmy was right on his gearbox he was under attack he drew closer and closer but he would survive this time with two laps to go there isn't much opportunity left for Kimmy as Each corner passes FY K nudges closer and closer to Victory now the pressure starts to shift ever so slightly to the McLaren driver he probably also remembered that he had lost races this year on the last lap owing to a lack of reliability sure by this time the car had gotten a lot better but still could this damn thing just keep itself together to the end even those thoughts went away however when once again FY K defended aggressively into the final chicane having seen this episode before Kimmy lined himself up for an attack onto the straight for the final lap FY desperately attempted to defend weaving across the track millimet of part can be darted to the outside scent it [Music] deep I'm sure that some of you have heard the term Prime kimy renan about how in the early 2000s he was an absolute demon behind the wheel worlds apart from the driver we saw toward the end of his career all this is true and this race proved all of that coming from the very back of the grid to take victory with some of the most audacious moves you'd ever see from an F1 driver in short he was the best in the world on his day and this was his day this was all him this was Prime Kimmy renan this is why his name is steeped in Legend but while it was all Jubilation for him McLaren and Ron Dennis Renault were not at all happy just last year they had fired one of their drivers for butchering a podium in almost the same manner but this was a race win and the constructor's championship on the line it seems that FY Keller might be on rout to meet the same fate well as it would turn out he wouldn't they actually tried to shelter him from any blame for losing that race right at the end and ultimately it didn't matter too much Reno would become the constructor's champions in the final round in Shanghai but whatever the case this race was easily the best of the year and remains one of the greatest in Formula 1's history overall there have been a lot of crappy races over the years where the monotonous task of staying up late or getting up early to watch A procession starts to wear thin but sometimes you get an absolute gem watching this race time flew by as for the large part we were watching pure racing truly courageous driving without the need for Drs or a Netflix crew curse and it happened here at Suzuka a track not really regarded as a hot bit for great racing yet as the checked flag fell you couldn't help but agree when James Allen remarked this was Grand Prix racing and its absolute finest [Music]

Channel: Josh Revell

Views: 128,982

Keywords: f1, formula 1, japanese grand prix, 2005 japanese grand prix, 2005 suzuka, suzuka, 2005 japan gp, 2005 japan grand prix, raikkonen 2005, kimi raikkonen 2005, raikkonen suzuka, raikkonen suzuka 2005

Id: fLIfgQGCA-M

Length: 15min 24sec (924 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 05 2024