Vettel clinches second F1 championship in Japan

2011 Japanese Grand Prix

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Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull, Suzuka, 2011

Sebastian Vettel has won the F1 drivers championship for the second year in a row.

Third place in the Japanese Grand Prix confirmed Vettel as the champion with four races to spare.

Vettel’s achievement, at the age of 24 years and 98 days, makes him the youngest driver to win two world championships.

He is the first driver to win back-to-back championships since Fernando Alonso in 2006.

See the current points standings in full here:

F1 world champions by country

Vettel’s win means more championships have now been won from drivers from Germany than any other nation besides Great Britain.

Whereas ten different British drivers have claimed the crown the nine championships won by German drivers belong to Vettel and Michael Schumacher – and all were won in the last 17 years.

CountryNo.Drivers/s
1Britain14Mike Hawthorn, Graham Hill (2), Jim Clark (2), John Surtees, Jackie Stewart (3), James Hunt, Nigel Mansell, Damon Hill, Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button
2Germany9Michael Schumacher (7), Sebastian Vettel (2)
3Brazil8Emerson Fittipaldi (2), Nelson Piquet (3), Ayrton Senna (3)
4Argentina5Juan Manuel Fangio
5Australia4Jack Brabham (3), Alan Jones
5Austria4Jochen Rindt, Niki Lauda (3)
5France4Alain Prost
5Finland4Keke Rosberg, Mika Hakkinen (2), Kimi Raikkonen
9Italy3Giuseppi Farina, Alberto Ascari (2)
10United States2Phil Hill, Mario Andretti
10Spain2Fernando Alonso
12New Zealand1Denny Hulme
12South Africa1Jody Scheckter
12Canada1Jacques Villeneuve

2011 Japanese Grand Prix

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    Image © Red Bull/Getty images

    Author information

    Keith Collantine
    Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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    60 comments on “Vettel clinches second F1 championship in Japan”

    1. Ringdigidindindingding!!!!

      1. And “Yadabaduh” lol

    2. Must be nice to be able to write an article bar a single digit before the race!

    3. Many congrats to Mr Vettel, fully deserved.
      Hope he has to fight for his 3rd next year.

        1. +2

          What a season for Vettel. Always pushed for the wins, even if he didn’t need to. Love to see that.

      1. I can only agree with that one @bbt

      2. Agree, boy done good, congrats Vettel, hopefully the others will rise to the challenge next year!!!!

        1. @Bigbadderboom That’s the way I see it. The way many people look at it, they would rather Vettel fail of his own accord than someone take the fight to him. That’s not sport at all!

          I’m all for another strong year for Vettel next year.

    4. Blimey that was quick! Nice work from Jenson. Vettel is on the podium which is good.

    5. Just nitpicking here, but it would still be useful to put Alain Prost(4) and Fernando Alsonso(2) even though they are the only drivers from their countries… No big deal though and great statistics!

      1. I was just about to say that but we have somewhere else to focus right now, don’t we? ;)

    6. It was great to finally hear some true emotion from Vettel and not the completely over-the-top “WHOOOOOOOOO AMAGAD D00D I WAN!!” It was a great race and hopefully next years championship will be as interesting as the racing.

    7. He’s been a problem that no one has been able to fix…. but well done

    8. Congrats Seb.

    9. Double Finger!! Now I congrats him, but I wish next year is not same!!

      1. What digit do you think he’ll put up if he wins a 3rd… ;-)

        1. a toe I guess? :P

      2. Those who hate 1 finger will have to take two fingers!

        I’d love to see Schumacher win a race and putting 7 fingers up! :)

    10. He may have won the title today but I think the talking points have been JB and Alonso with their performances. I almost forgot about Seb and he was so caught up racing Fernando at one point I thought when the race finished he’d be surprised to find out he’d won the title.

      He’s been superb all season bar perhaps today and Germany but that’s just nitpicking. He’s been so close to perfection the majority of the time. I know he’s got a good car but so does Mark and he’s destroyed him this year and that says a lot about how good Vettel is. Great job to the entire RBR team esp design and the pitcrew who have the toughest job in the pitlane but I can’t remember them ever making a mistake.

      1. Agreed, he’s been perfect this year, utterly deserved title. He’s surely established himself now as one of the best complete packages on the grid, I think he’s right up there with Alonso and Button.

      2. @steph Though the pitcrew did make some mistakes – at Monaco and Silverstone, but it didn’t cost him anything. They weren’t flawless today either, but I think that was 1st pit stop which didn’t lose him the lead anyway.

        1. @Enigma you’ve always got to be right, haven’t you? ;)

          Alonso>Seb>JB for me :P

      3. I wasn’t as excited as last year, because I already knew who would’ve won, and because Jenson’s and Fernando’s drives were incredible. I didn’t make the fuss I should’ve made of Alonso taking second and catching Button, maybe because it was early in the morning or maybe because the commentators were saying he would’ve been in front of Vettel before he stopped.

    11. Regardless that finger… You have to like this man/boy.
      Two WDC and showing hè is able to overtake! What à year!

      1. Yes I am warming to him now, he has been amazing all year, still don’t like that finger though! Congratulations to Vettel x

    12. FANTASTIC RACE!

      Congrats to Vettlel on his 2nd WDC.

      Button and Alonso for putting up a great fight. Overall they were many exciting moments from the rest of the grid. Hamilton and Massa, deja vu.

      The last four races will be preparation for 2012.

    13. Congrats to Vettel, he fully deserves the title.

    14. Congrats to Vettel on the double-title. Like him or not a more mature season and a fantastic performance!

    15. Well done to Vettel, it’s scary to think how young he is and how many more he could win in his career!

      For 2012 we need a combination of this year’s good racing and 2010’s championship battle!

    16. Absolutely outstanding performance this season. Double World Champion at 24.

      He is surely now the undisputed Number 1 driver in Formula 1, bar none.

      1. I’m not so sure yet, I think if you put say, Alonso in that Red Bull instead of Vettel the gap to 2nd wouldn’t be any less.

        But he’s close to it for sure.

        1. @Mike @Magnificent-Geoffrey I’m gonna agree with Mag on this one. Without a doubt the world number 1 in every sense.

          While it would always be interesting to see drivers swapping cars, I don’t think it’s fair to assume any one driver could do a better job than Vettel. Vettel has a talent which the car has been designed around. It’s set-up specifically for him. Being that in tune with your machine is a talent that should be recognised more often.

      2. First of all, congrats to Vettel. Outstanding performance for sure. About the undisputed Number 1 driver in Formula 1…maybe the question should not be: What would have Alonso done with this Red Bull? maybe the question should be: What would have Vettel done with this Ferrari? would he have performed better than Alonso? I doubt it

        1. But would Alonso have done better than Vettel in the Red Bull? I doubt that too.

          1. How would Seb have done in the McLaren, I think he could have won it.

    17. Two down, six to go…

    18. Congrats to the new champion! And he’s still the 5th youngest driver! Absolute madness. O.o

      Lets see if the can make him work for his next one.

    19. Well done to Sebastian Vettel. He has absolutely deserved every last drop of success this year.

    20. Usually when I see the headline, I can at least see the winner of the race. Right now, the winner of the race doesn’t get any mention anywhere in the article. I need to actually see the GP result know the winner.
      Congrats to Vettel, but don’t forget the race winner next time :)

      1. this is not the race report

      2. @frans The race review is here:

        Button holds back Alonso and Vettel for Japanese Grand Prix win

        You can tell this isn’t the race review because it doesn’t say “2011 Japanese GP review” on it.

        1. I know that this isn’t a review. But I would like the review to be up first and this article 2nd. It’s strange to go to F1 Fanatic and reading this article first. It felt like something was missing.

          1. @frans

            I know that this isn’t a review.

            The I’ve no idea what you’re complaining about. The review is never up as soon after a race as this article was, it takes time to check it and write it.

            1. This is probably just my stupidity… When I read this article and came across the third place in Japanese GP, I immediately try to find an article about why he only finished in third. I couldn’t find it at that time thus the comment. It was definitely a strange moment for me when I tried to click the links at the bottom of the article and find nothing. This wouldn’t have happened if I watch the race live though. I just need a bit more patience in waiting for the review.
              Thanks for compiling the data… Never knew that Britain have a lot of F1 winners and Germany only have 2 winners.

    21. Whether you love him or hate him, you’ve got to respect him, he dominated this year.

      1. @f199player I think that anyone who ‘hates’ him would have a difficult time justifying so. He’s kept his head down at the front. He’s not wiped anyone out to claim any victory. He’s an approachable character and a great guy.

    22. Congrats Sebastian Vettel Youngest Double World Champion

    23. Pretty epic. I would have loved it if he won the race to clinch the title but a podium isn’t exactly a bad way to win either. To think that this is his 2nd worst result of the season is mad!
      Hope he actually has a car that isn’t as dominant as it has been in the last two years next season. I have to say that this wasn’t nearly as exciting as Abu Dhabi. Though, I have a feeling that Red Bull won’t be producing anything short of a brilliant car next season, let’s just hope that McLaren and Ferrari can actually keep up this time!

    24. Vettel has simply been the master this season. Astounding race pace, phenomenal consistency, near unbeatable one lap pace (only Senna, Fangio, Ascari and Clark have better pole ratios). As Brundle said, he’s been in a class of one.

    25. At the end of 1993, Britain had 11 titles, Brazil 8, Argentina 5, and Germany a whopping 0.

      18 years later, Britain is still ahead on 14, but Germany has leapt past the rest on 9. That’s 9 of 18 for Germany to be exact, a strike rate of 50%. It’s an amazing statistic, the likes of which hasn’t been seen since the Brits went 9 of 15 from 1962-1976.

      That is quite the achievement for Messrs. Schumacher and Vettel.

    26. Misleading statistic counting the number of titles in lieu of number of drivers; Schumy’s aberrant number of titles skews the results.

      I see 9 Brits with titles and only 2 Germans.

      1. Surely Keith made that very clear in the article? It was clear to me personally.

      2. Err, so what?

      3. jsw11984 (@jarred-walmsley)
        9th October 2011, 23:23

        Whats your point exactly? Do you want it to be titles divided by average number of champions per country or something? All that table showed was the number of titles won and the country that driver came from.

    27. One could also note that Vettel’s title brings Germany level with England on nine WDCs, Jim Clark and Jackie Stewart being Scottish.

    28. Really pleased for him and indeed the hard working team at Milton Keynes – we should also be congratulating them.

      Vettel seems like such a nice bloke off track. I would love him to surpass Schumacher in terms of titles!

    29. What a well deserved victory. Coming in third behind the guys who tried all season to get to this well deserved point is no shame, look how long it took them both to get there!
      If someone, somewhere, were to blow the MSC’s long list of firsts, I’d really enjoy watching SV do that.
      IRT JB and FA, what a race both of you boys had today, thank you. For all the number two’s racing, thank you also, typical but enjoyable.

    30. Gratz pappa smurf childe

    31. OmarR-Pepper (@)
      10th October 2011, 16:34

      Finally done!!! Excellent and I hope to see him with that “number one finger” for many years

    Comments are closed.